Can anyone recommend an.......
Discussion
aftermarket disk defragmentation program? I have run the defrag that comes with XP SP2 and I still have files showing as being defragemented even though my hdd is only about 56% full. The long and the short is that my laptop is taking soooo long to boot up and the disk access is huge while it does so. I have run ccleaner and now defrag in the hope that it would speed up again. It is a PIII 1Ghz with 256Mb RAM and not much else out of the ordinary. Running no memory hungry or processor intensive apps, so any ideas from anyone?
there is a directory called 'prefetch' in windows. Basically every time you run a program XP thinks oh, maybe he'll want to run that again so puts a tag into this directory then preloads part of the program when you start windows. The longer you have XP the slower boot up becomes. Just delete the entire prefetch directory, it will recreate it as blank on startup and things should be quicker
Also worth running MSCONFIG (from START - RUN) - got to the startup tab and it will show you all the programs that are loading before windows gives you control. Just untick anything you dont think you need.
Also worth running MSCONFIG (from START - RUN) - got to the startup tab and it will show you all the programs that are loading before windows gives you control. Just untick anything you dont think you need.
To be honest, people do get too hung up on defrag. The impact of a heavily fragmented disk is minimal when compared to shortage of memory, windows prefetching programs and all the junk that gets stuck into the startup routines. In the bad old days it was a problem as disks were slow but modern high speed disks mean the effect is pretty negligible. In my experience defrag is the last place I would look to solve a boot speed problem.
Good luck !
Good luck !
Definately support the above comments, adding some memory to the machine should see a good improvement in speed.
XP likes its RAM and every machine I have seen running xp sp2 with 'only' 256 MB RAM runs like a dog. I am about to do a similar upgrade as a christmas present for someone (lucky person eh!) so can let you know the results if you give me a shout after christmas. 512MB SODIMMs for laptops are about £40 a pop at the mo, so I think its worth the money to keep a machine useable for another year or so.
XP likes its RAM and every machine I have seen running xp sp2 with 'only' 256 MB RAM runs like a dog. I am about to do a similar upgrade as a christmas present for someone (lucky person eh!) so can let you know the results if you give me a shout after christmas. 512MB SODIMMs for laptops are about £40 a pop at the mo, so I think its worth the money to keep a machine useable for another year or so.
sp60 said:
Oh, and ta for that info bigdods , I going to try that prefetch idea on a couple of machines see what happens.
Reducing prefetch should reduce the time when the scrolling green or blue bar is sitting on the screen while loading. If the delay is beyond that point then you really need to fire up MSCONFIG and see whats in the startup. You'll be amazed how much crap creeps in there. And the great thing is you just untick what you dont want, it doesnt actually remove it. So if you reboot and something doesnt work you just put the tick back in :-)
Edited to add: Agree about the XP memory. I recommend a minimum of 512MB for XP and I dont bother looking further at problem machines with less until they are upgraded. 9 times out of 10 the problem goes away after the upgrade. Still find it shocking that they sell PCs with only 256MB which isnt enough to run windows when an extra 256MB is only about £12+VAT. And i had someone come to me recently with a minging machine - brand new, only 128MB yet sold as 'internet ready' jeez.
>> Edited by bigdods on Tuesday 20th December 17:25
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