ERIC SPELLMANN

Speed up that old system, part 1

Want a faster computer? Buy one! But if funds are tight, you may be able to eke out some more performance from that dinosaur on your desk. This week, I’ll cover some maintenance tips for the biggest bottleneck on most systems: the Hard Drive.

Scrub-A-Dub-Dub

If you think “emptying your recycle bin” is the only way to clean a hard drive, think again. Various temporary files are strewn all over that spinning platter, taking up valuable drive real estate. Every now and then, it pays to clean this mess up.

When the amount of free space on your hard disk is less than twice the amount of RAM it has, your system will slow considerably. Did that make sense? As an example, if you have 128 megabytes of RAM, your system will start to get sluggish when your hard drive has less than 256 megabytes free. The more RAM your system possesses, the more free hard drive space will be required by the system for these work files.

One way to clean up some of the clutter (and free a lot of space to boot), is to run the Windows Disk Cleanup Tool. Click on the Start Button, then Programs, Accessories, System Tools, and finally, Disk Cleanup. If you don’t have this program, find your original Windows CD and install it. It’s that important.

Choose the drive to clean and hit OK. A list of proposed files will be listed. Take the default and hit OK. If you’ve never used this utility before, you’ll probably be surprised by how much space you free up.

Throw Excess Baggage Overboard

Another way to dramatically clean your drive is to un-install programs you no longer use. Click the Start button, Settings, Control Panel, Add/Remove Programs. If you have Windows 2000 or XP, the system can sort your programs by their amount of use. Look through the list and click Remove for any programs you don’t need. Don’t fret if you make a mistake. You can always blow the dust off that old CD and re-install it later.

Re-Zone Your Land

Speaking of Windows 2000/XP, consider changing your hard drive’s file structure to NTFS (New Technology File System). The standard file format on most hard drives is called FAT32 (sounds like a rapper doesn’t it?). NTFS can more efficiently handle large often-used files than FAT32. Better still, NTFS adds more security and reliability to your system. Only one drawback exists, though:  Windows 95/98/ME will not recognize drives formatted as NTFS. So, only consider this option with higher versions.

To see which file structure your hard drive is currently set to, double-click on My Computer, right-click on a drive, and choose Properties. Converting a FAT32 system to NTFS is very easy. Click the Start button, Programs, Accessories, and then Command Prompt. Type the following:

CONVERT C: /FS:NTFS /V

You can, of course, replace the C: with any drive letter. This process takes a while, so you might consider starting this task right before bedtime.

Open the Spigot All the Way

Make sure you are taking full advantage of your hard drive’s DMA (Direct Memory Access) pipeline.  In simple English, by using DMA transfer methods, your hard drive can bypass the microprocessor when moving large amounts of data into memory. Chances are, your hard drive is already installed with this option turned on. However, it doesn’t hurt to check.

Get ready, we’re diving deep this time:  Click on Start/ Settings/ Control Panel /System /Hardware /Device Manager, and then double-clicking on your IDE ATA/ATAPI controller. Double-click on your Primary IDE channel and choose Advanced Settings. Make sure "DMA if available" is selected in the drop-down menu.

Yes, Defrag is a Word

Finally, make sure to defrag your system regularly. I won’t go into the particulars of what “defragging is” simply because I covered that in the last column. To use Microsoft’s utility, click Start/ Programs/ Accessories/ System Tools/ Disk Defragmenter.

Next week, I’ll continue this “speed up your dinosaur” segment with cost-effective upgrades that will put off the new-system-purchase for a year or two. Until then ...

I’ll see you in Cyberspace!
 
http://www.EricSpellmann.com

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