C drive

was trying to see if I could compress my c drive....... it said it couldnt because it was FAT 32a. What does that mean???

 

correction: FAT32

 

A Harddisk can be divided in partitions, a partitions can be formatted using a certain filesystem. There exists several types of filesystems, the most common for Windows:

FAT16
FAT32
NTFS (Cannot be used by Win9x without 3rd party utilities)

NTFS is more advanced than the FAT-filesystems, and allows encryption, recovery and compression natively. So like the message says one have to convert the partition to NTFS to access these features.

Converting from FAT32 to NTFS...

Fat32 vs. NTFS?

In the old Win95 days one could do compression of FAT16 using 3rd party utilities like Stacker and SuperSpace. Though it created a lot of troubles because FAT16 is a very unreliable filesystem.

 

Basicly,if it says it's Fat32, it already IS compressed. If your running out of drive space............Time to do some cleaning. Or new bigger hard drive.

 

Compressing the drive will slow down your system and may cause various other problems.
Do as Brian C says!

 

you could compress the drive using double space, but it will cause a significant performance hit. The best bet is to get a larger hard drive and ghost your old drive to it. A 40 GB WD HDD is relatively cheap, somewhere arounf $80.

 

how can I find out what size my current drive is? I'm sorry.. its probley under my nose... but I've not a clue

 

in my computer and right click the C drive , and select properties

FW you could prolly find a 40 gb for like 65 if you shop around but it would be oem otherwise it prolly would b like 80 for a retail box

 

Best places to keep an eye out are :
BestBuy.com
OfficeDepot.com
Staples.com
Actually, right now if you go to Staples.com you'll see they have a Maxtor 40GIG 7200rpm on special right now.
$89.98 minus $10.00 Staples instant rebate, MINUS manufacturers $30.00 mail in rebate.
Total cost................$49.94

 

all it says is AMD K-6 3-D processor, 120.0 MB RAM ......... am I looking at the right thing?

 

oh...... wait.......it says my HD capacity is 7.43 GB.......... is that it???

 

Yeah Redrose. You got a 8 Gig hard drive then. Is it nearly full?

 

well...... about half of it is... could my HD be whats making this comp run so bad? grrrrrrrr........its just so aggervating

 

Nope. Half is ok. I would add more memory. You said your system is reporting you have 120MB of ram. That would be 128MB that's actually installed. (System resources are using the other 8MB). 256MB ram, is pretty much the minimum standard these days. Of course you need to find out what type of memory the computer takes, and if you CAN put in more.
You may also just need to clean up a bit. (Clear out your cookies, run defrag, etc). I highly reccomend you go to pcpitstop.com and run the "full test". You will be given a beehive of info, after the tests have completed, about memory configuration, and just about every other condition or problem your computer may have. Post back if you need more help.

 

well.... I think I found all the info on my comp......and thx for the help. I will be sure to go there...... I put all the info I could find in my signature......is it as crappy as I thought???

 

It's not that bad. If you check my sig, you'll see I also have a Northgate computer in the house, with pretty close to the same specs as yours. I list it as a semi- piece o crap, but thats only because I'm a geek. It's a fairly fast machine. I mean like.......I don't do the finger tapping thing when I use it, waiting for stuff to load.
P.S. Adding memory, is the cheapest and easiest way, to speed up the computer.

 

I would definately get a bigger hard drive. Hell, I could use up the entire 8 gig with the games I have installed on my comp. Probably has nothing to do with your performance problems, but it couldn't hurt to have a bigger hard drive. A faster processor would be the best thing for you to get to see an increase in performance. If things didn't get skewed, and you are actually only using 8MB, (I think it's unlikely to use that little) then you really wouldn't need more memory. But as a mental note... I don't think you can ever have too much memory. If it were me, I'd just buy an entire new system and keep the one you have for a decent second box... install Linux on it or something... learn a new operating system.

 

yeah.....I figured I would be better off buying a new comp. Just so expencive. The one I want to get is at wal-mart for $700......but cant remember all the specs on it..... all I remember is it has 512 or something MB of memory, dvd rom, dvdrw, 17 inch moniter( mine is 15"). I believe its an HP comp. I just have to wait till I get at least half of the money for it. with my luck they will probley stop carrying it when I do get the money, lol

 

if you are going to upgrade in the near future... i'd HIGHLY recommend Dell or Gateway instead of HP or Compaq...


Dell will always have a decent little system for whatever price you are looking for, and you'll get a better system than you would with HP

just my 2 cents, as most of the geeks on here would agree... HP's are trouble.

 

H P's arent trouble once you straighten them out! LOL I agree though don't buy HP unless you want a headache or intend to spend some $ on a top of the line one

 

Which dell or gateway should I get..... in your opinion? want to go online, play online games like battle.net, and still have the resorces to play a variety of regular offline games