Useful Hard Disk / Windows Tips

Hi,

I have been doing this for quite sometime, and ive done it on all my friends systems and its worked really well, so I thought id share what ive done and if it helps anyone else- then great stuff

Firstly, on a single hard disk set 3 partitions. C D and E

C should be the standard windows : set it to 5 GB
D should be the program files : set to size of harddisk remaining minus 5 GB
E should be a temp / swap file partition : set to size 5 GB

My 60 GB setup would therefore be

C : 5GB
D : 50GB
E : 5GB

Now, Install windows fresh on C ( 9x or XP ) and install as per normal. Now when windows is installed set the swap file to run from E ( normally 1 GB min/max is enough ) Then edit the internet files and make the cache run from the E drive under E:/internet cache/

Same for Outlook ETC

Install ALL your programs to D: None to C, except the following exceptions

Anti Virus Programs
Firewalls

Set My Documents to D: by right click, properties.

Benifits to doing this?

When you run Norton Image, you can image your entire C Drive on one DVD or 2-3 CD's, rather than having the complicated procedure of backing up the whole 60GB. When windows messes up you can format C: reinstall windows and not loose a single program or important document! Obviously reg entries will be lost, but lets face it, you still have your entire download / my documents / email set!

You get less cache and defrag, because E is the most regularly accessed partition and that can be easily and quickly defragged in NO time compaired to an entire drive.

Security is better, for sharing files via FTP, people cannot access other partitions.

Anyway the main benifit is definatly that you dont loose any info from D ! Always been the major +++++++++

Let me know if this helps, or if you need any advanced help with regards to setting up partitions etc etc.

Anyway if you find this useful please sticky!

 

Good tips.. I used to do something like this, but I found it annoying after a while.
We don't sticky threads often so don't take offense to it if it falls into the void.

 

OKAY, SO ...

How do you edit the internet files?

DVD? Why would someone back the entire HD to a DVD instead of regular CDs? (I'm new to the DVD thing, so pardon my ignorance.) I thought DVD was for movies and multi-media.

What kind of issues result from this loss? I've known some camera programs (like Intel's Create and Share of old) to not work well if not installed on the C drive with the rest of Windows' system files. You, however, have never come across any problems?

Thanks much,

Starkman

 

yoiu're not editing the internnet files themselves, just the location in which the cache is stored/located.

DVD's have SIGNIFICANTLY more capacity than CD's..
CD=650MB overburn to 700MB
DVD 4GB

when you lose registry entries, most programs may not run at all, some will just lose their configuration information. It will be necessary to reinstall the applications.

 

SO, HOW DO I DO THAT?

How's that done?

Thanks,

Starkman

 

expensive stuff

If you create partitions I believe you need a good piece of software to do that no ? Partition Magic $$$ + Norton Ghost $$$ + DVD = ?

 

if you doit from the start.

FDISK=FREE
Acronis True Image= 50.00

acronis can do it to CD or DVD so the cost varies here.

 

FDISK?

Okay,
I already have Norton Ghost but a very beginning beginner at this stuff.
Have seen the guys at the tech store put Win98SE on but they do it so fast that you would need a week long course to get a hang of it.
Have done searches on the web and it seems everyone has a different way to do things...

 

there are a 101 ways to do it.. it depends on your scenario and your preference.

 

Easiest way

Should I ask...

Is there an elementary 1,2,3 step for re-installing WinSE98 on 40Gigs with with 224 Ram ?

 

a clean install for the typical user situation.

Put CD ROM in CD ROM drive.. boot the machine.. let it boot off the cd and follow the instructions.

 

DVD's are great they work just like cds, you can do the same things you do with cds except that you get a whole lot more space in a DVD

for instance. I have a 43 gig drive on my computer about 9 gigs of used space. I never save mp3's, pictures, personal information, emails or anything on that drive it just has the programs and the operating system. anyways, the 9 used gigs would probably take about 3 maybe 4 cds to save if I back it up to cd's it only takes me one dvd. (with space left on it) every month or so I make another backup of my system just in case I have deleted or added another program to my system.

I use norton Ghost---- Norton ghost to be honest with you not that user friendly, It takes about a good 30 minutes of reading instructions before you can make an attemp at a backup

But it works. Acronis I suppose might be more user friendly I do not know.

OH one more thing I learned this the hard way. before you make a back up I recommend the following: (it works for me) Turn off go back or system restore then use a registry cleaner (make sure the registry cleaner makes a back up) delete all temp files, delete the internet clutter and finally run scandisk and then defrag the drive. then make the backup reason I state this is becuase system restore or goback usually use 10 percent of the disk to save all the backups The first back up I made of my system I also backup all that stuff with it and it took 3 dvds instead of just one. In other words my backup had all that goback info and restore info in it. what a waste of a good dvd

 

BUT ...



Still need to know how to edit the internet files and make the cache run from the E drive under E:/internet cache/???

Thanks,

Starkman

 

Re: BUT ...

Under IE5 you do the following:

Tools menu, Internet Options, click on the Settings button on the 'General' tab.

Click on the 'Move Folder' button and browse to where you want it to put the temp internet files, click OK several times and it's done.

 

Hey, thanks, Lesrael.

I was thinking this was something done in Windows Explorer or something like that.

Thanks again,

Starkman

 

Just to go along with the idea, you might want to do this after Windows is installed:

1. Create a folder in D: and name it, say, Programs
2. Launch Regedit.exe, and navigate to:
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion
3. On the right pane, change the value of ProgramFilesDir to D:\Programs and the value of CommonFilesDir to D:\Programs\CommonFiles (provided that you create this folder first).
   [/list=1]
   Once done, every program (well, almost) you install will default to D:\Programs and shared files to D:\Programs\Common Files.
   I do that on every one of my Windows installations and it worked great. Note that you have to do this since the very beginning when Windows is absolutely fresh and clean.

 

For Win 98 install help:
http://support.microsoft.com/defaul...port/kb/articles/q221/8/29.asp&NoWebContent=1

I used to do partitions under 98, but XP is a little different. Newer programs all tie into the OS on install and you have to reinstall the programs if you reinstall the OS. Also many games do not like being on a seperate drive.

For half the price of a DVD burner you might buy a second hard drive and mirror your RAID or boot drive to it.

 

"Once done, every program (well, almost) you install will default to D:\Programs and shared files to D:\Programs\Common Files.
I do that on every one of my Windows installations and it worked great. Note that you have to do this since the very beginning when Windows is absolutely fresh and clean."

Thats a great tip, thanks for that- ill remember to add that one in the future

 

Swap file:
It is not a good idea to put swap file on the last partition (that is, near the centre of disk), since the write/read speeds are almost 50 % slower there.

Temp folder and IE Cache:
You can install some utility that runs at startup and deletes the contents of these two folders (or make a batch file for this purpose).

To avoid excessive fragmentation I'd rather put my data (documents, archive, downloads, etc.) on a separate partition or drive.