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I just purchased a pile of Smart Computing Mags (back issues) also more material at the library.. and I read things like defrag once every six months...once a week... once a month...and - on this forum "do it on a regular basis".. What does this mean?? Is is related to how much downloading and deleting one does?? I have also read in one mag that too much defrag can damage the hard drive.. is this true? or does it depend on who is writing the article?? Tks.. Lorna
I scandisk and defrag about every two or three days. The longer time between the longer it will take.
thebest2uDon
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Well it depends on how u use ur compueter. If you are such a hardcore who install and reinstall many app, browse internet day and night than you should do defragment and scan disk once a week.
To make defragment process faster, it is better if you do partition on ur HD. So if you download large documents or files (such as mp3, avi, etc) than you can store it under another partiton and the smaller the capacity of a partition than the faster u can do defragmentation.
If you are not such hardcore than you can defragment and scan disk once a month.
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Every time i sit in front of someone elses pc and run defrag the systems so fragmented it takes an hour to finish. Doesnt anyone use this feature?
About every 2-3 days i do this:
1.Clear out temp net files/cookies/history.
2.Move data/favorites to designated locations from my desktop and delete anything i dont need.
3.Clear the documents history from the start button.
4.Run RegCleaner.
5.ScanDisk/Defrag
6.Virus Scan with updated definitions.
7.Burn backups of any data thats been added or edited.
It takes about 20 minutes to complete steps 1 thru 6 + whatever time it takes to burn & test backups of my data.Your data's safe/Your systems clear from clutter/Im going away now :)
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yes, with most computers and how windows is installed.
Run Defrag often.
with internet files, logs, backups, programs that keep backups, desktop items
and My DocumentsAll on the same drive partition will get kinda mixed together.
Which wouldn't be all that bad if the Registry wasn't getting mixed in there too.
So even with a small percentage of your drive fragmented it's one of the most important part of your OS.
I'd also think about getting a utility program if just for the defragmenter.
I use an old Nuts & Bolts program
It now McAfee
I don't run any of it all the time and it's a pain to get it all not running after install.
But it's a heck of alot faster than Windows Defrag.
And there are more options and faster ways of defragmenting.I can defrag my Windows 4 gig partition in under 2 min.
I can defrag my 10 gig program and internet files in under 5.
My 20 Gig backup and junk folder, Well I'll just do that later.Oops, my keyboard over-floweth
TheGorx
Windows Help
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Ok, I forgot this was Windows ME
You might not want to use third party defragmenters with Windows ME.My program really messed it up.
I defrag in a dual boot with windows 98.
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Hello and Happy New Year,
I use Norton System Works and the scandisk that comes with it. It's much faster and more effective than the original in Win Me. I've been doing it everyday for 2 years now (it's auto scheduled) and my hard disk is in perfect condition:) I've noticed that my internet connection runs much better when the files are in order. As do all other applications:)
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Not defraging your drive is more damaging to it then defraging often could ever be ! I have Norton Utilities and I use the speed disk to defrag about once a week !
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Norton's Speed disk (besides being faster and more efficient, as noted above) has another advantage: If you make your swapfile permanent (my recommendation: twice the size of your memory) Speed Disk will put it at the beginning of your hard drive where acess times are fastest. (MS Defrag does not.)
I also use Disk Doctor, and WinDoctor (but I do not let it pick solutions!) all the time, as well as Anti-Virus, so the best buy is Norton's System Works.
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P.S.: I forgot to say that if you want to make the swap file permanent, min AND max should be the same value.
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Just to add my 2 cents worth (CENTS!!! now that we've gone EURO over here yesterday, all 300 million of us)......sorry.
If you are a routine user of word processing and e-mail, once a month is enough, if you are a power user of many programs once a week at least, if you keep copying stuff all over the place, once a day. And I have never seen the slightest evidence of the claims that it will wear your hard disk out.
I also use Norton which is vastly superior to the MS version and I use it just like Renaissance Man says, only because I have a big hard disk with lots of spare space I set the swapfile to 1500 minimum and maximum (1.5GB) and I find it makes a noticeable difference to performance and results in fewer crashes. (Go to Start, settings, Control Panel, System, Performance, Virtual Memory, Let me Specify my own virtual memory settings)
I also do what SMUOD does only I use Renaissance Man's batch file as on http://computing.net/windows95/wwwboard/forum/63127.html response number 44
:)
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Thanks Trev.. and gang now I have a good idea and tailor to my useage. Also thanks for the min-max swap info..I have 512meg Ram and a 40 Gig hard-drive with 30 gig spare right now.. Would max-min of 1500 still work ok??
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With that much RAM, I might start first with a 512 swap file. Also, I think it you wanted to do 2x RAM, 1024 would be more than enough.
The best analysis of swapfiles on the internet was at www.rojackpot.com in the Speed Demonz area, but a visit there today turned up no website.
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Sorry, that was http://www.rojakpot.com/, (no "c" in rojak) but it still doesn't work.
The message is "No web site is configured at this address." Anybody know what happened to it?
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Tks Ren-Man.. I can't get that site either..Maybe with 512Meg ram I should let winme look after it's own virtual mem....
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It doesn't matter. If you have loads of space and you dedicate 1.5Gb to the swapfile it doesn't really matter. It just uses up disk space and leaves lots of room for Windows to operate cleanly in, all by itself. If you need the disk space later change it.
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Defrag at least once a week - it does no harm.
Try using a good 3rd party defrag such as VoptMe - just do a search and you will find it.
It is far better and quicker than Microsoft.
Best of luck.
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It appears that once you've specified manual VM settings in Win ME, you've lost that space...
I had my own settings for a long time, but needed space - so I switched to "Let Windows muck up Virtual Memory" - and my original paging file disappeared - along with the disk space allocated to it. Neither scandisk or a defrag retrieved the missing space. And every time I switched settings, the original file handle disappeared, along with the allocated space.
Anyone know of a WinME utility that will free up the blocks that MS defrag displays as "Data that Will Not Be Moved"???
Grrrrr.....
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Even if you could move the files, that wouldn't free up the space. If you think they shouldn't be there, then you have to find out what they are, where they are, if it's safe to delete them, and then delete them.
If you "Let Windows muck up Virtual Memory," that doesn't mean you don't have a swap file, it means Windows makes a swap file as small or as BIG as it wants. My guess is that you're seeing the Windows-set swap file.
Norton's Speed Disk moves more files than Windows' Defrag, and if you click on a space in the data part of the screen after it's finished defragmenting, it will even tell you what it is! The other advantage of Speed Disk is that it will put a permanent swap file at the fastest part of the disk.
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