I'm running Windows XP on my main 30GB drive and am using a second 80GB drive for storing things. I have two questions.

1) Is it possible to reformat my 30GB drive without having my 80GB drive affected? I have a few items on there that I don't want to lose and would rather not burn at the moment. All of my programs are run from the 30GB drive and the other is used strictly for storage.

2) I've done a bit of research on here about why my machine is showing around 50% CPU Usage with only Task Manager running and have only been able to drop the usage by about 5% with some of the suggestions offered. I think that this is definately not normal, thus my reasoning for a reformat to try and rectify this problem. But I did remember reading someone say that people who use cable internet have this happen. Is this true? Anyone want to verify?

If any more information is needed, ask away.

Thanks a lot!

not enough ram?

I don't think that would be a problem. I have 640MB of ram.

1) Yes. Just don't select the 80gb drive and don't format it, and it won't get touched. If you're really concerned about accidently formatting the wrong drive, unplug it before you do anything and plug it back in when you're done.

2) Does the processes tab in Task manager tell you what is taking up all your CPU activity? Try updating your drivers for video, chipset, audio, etc. Exactly what is your hardware configuration?...irregardless of whether you have enough memory or not if your system is underpowered for Windows XP it's naturally going to have to work overtime to compensate.

The processes tab says that System Idle is taking it all up, which as I understand should be the case.

I've tried updating the drivers, but i'm not sure if I am doing it properly. I'll do some research for that.

I'm running an AMD Athlon XP 1700+ (1.46 GHz) on a ATX K7T Turbo 2 mobo. My video card is an S3 Savage 4.

It's actually not running slow or anything, at times briefly, but it just doesn't seem normal to me.


Thanks for all your help and input/suggestions.

Things like firewalls and some anti virus programs will swallow resources up. It may also be an idea to check the bios settings.

However, I wouldn't worry about it unless you yourself notice any lag or the machine going slow. If it's running normal, just leave it alone.

I would also test your ram to see if it is going bad...
here's a free check from your floppy drive:

MEMTEST (http://www.memtest.org/download/1.20/memtest86+-1.20.floppy.zip)