Puppywhirl

Hello all,

I always love to find new ways on making Windows as fast as possible. I have always known about the swap file and how important it is. Since that it is still summer for me and I have a few more weeks until I go back to College I want to try something different this time when it comes to harddrives and partitioning. What I am going to do is this:

1. Have a harddrive that has just the Windows XP OS on it, nothing else
2. Have another harddrive that has the page file and some backup files such as college papers, updates, etc. (I plan on making the pagefile as soon as I create the partition for this
3. And have another harddrive for my games and programs/applications.

My intentions are to have a computer that will run XP as fast as possible but allow me to reinstall it without losing my info. In my thinking it will do this:

1. Windows will start up quick and effieciently all the time.
2. IF I EVER need to reinstall windows, I will safe the time in needing to backup my files or losing them.
3. Increase organization and preformance. (I have OCD )

Do you think this is a good strategy? Any inputs?

Vipernitrox

i've got the same setup as you more or less.
i use vista x64 though. and i put my games, programs and swap file on the same drive as the os.
Reason is that games and programs tend to put alot of info in your registry which is on the same drive as your os. And without those registry keys the games won't run. So i you reinstall your os your games won't work anymore (the bulk of them).
Also i only have 1 harddrive right now so putting paging file onto another partition doesn't do me any good.
I just have a second partition to which i've moved my "my documents" folder (redirected everything too). And i simply don't save any important data on the second partition.

This way i only lose my installed games/programs i use which i've got backed up on cd's/dvd's/second partition.

i'll probably get me a second hard drive this summer. Then i'll still keep the same structure but just have 2 completely separate hard drives instead of 2 partitions.

Note: i do have 4gb of memory so my swap file isn't really being used at the moment.

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Puppywhirl

Thanks for the reply. And yes, you are right. If I would reinstall the os I would lose my ability to run those games again. But I never have problems with the os crapping out on me, that is why I would like to try this out, for extra performance and better organization. The only time in my life when I had to reinstall the os was when I was younger, and much more.. lets say... inexperienced with computers.

Still think I should go ahead and give this a try. I see a lot of people do this idea and they say it works.

Any other inputs?

Vipernitrox

if you're planning on getting the most out of your pc you could set your os partition file system to fat32. This does limit your os partition to a maximum of 4gb or something like that per file. And it does limit you in setting security options but it does increase your speed in file operations. Doing this for the partition where your swap file is on might be good to. But then you can't have swap file above 4gb. Also you could turn off file indexing on your drives. This does improve your drive speed but it also makes the "search" option in windows alot slower.

And btw another thing i was just thinking about. What software do you use to keep your computer "clean" besides a virus scanner and/or firewall. You should think about getting a registry cleaner (like jv16 powertools). And a disk defragmenter program (like perfectdisk) i prefer the 2 above but you should try looking around for around programs if you don't like them.

Also you should try limiting your startup programs (which you probably already know) using msconfig. And stop any unnecessary services (using services.msc) like printer spooler if you don't have any printers, task scheduler if you don't use it and loads of other services You don't think you use. The descriptions are next to it and they also point out the dependencies on other services. So just look around in it.

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DFI LanParty LT X48-T2R
Intel Q6700 @ 3.33ghz
Kingston 4x1 GB DDR2 HyperX @ 800mhz 4-4-4-12
Sapphire Toxic HD 4870 1GB
150Gb WD Velociraptor 10K rpm
3x1Tb Samsung Spinpoint in Raid 5
WC set: EK Supreme Plexi + TFC Xchanger 240 + Laing MCP 355
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Puppywhirl

Thanks for the extra advice! I use System Mechanic 7 to further assist in cleaning up my registry, etc. But thank you for the other programs, I will look into them.

Yes, I knew about msconfig and removing unnecessary startup programs. I know a few ways in keeping your system clean and organized, etc. I am curious though. How do you go about converting to fat32. I may not do this because I believe that my University prefers NTFS File Systems. But I will look into that, thanks again!

I was just thinking that on top of all other ways of increasing performance (change the swap file to have the same min/max, Good registry cleaner, removing startup programs, etc) I could also try this idea out. I just really want to have an all the time, organized, fast preforming system. Do you think it might be worth it?

Vipernitrox

it's just another tweak you'll notice the difference when accessing/copying multiple small files. You can use partitionmagic to convert it or just when reinstalling xp format the disk as fat32 instead of ntfs.

__________________
Antec 1200
DFI LanParty LT X48-T2R
Intel Q6700 @ 3.33ghz
Kingston 4x1 GB DDR2 HyperX @ 800mhz 4-4-4-12
Sapphire Toxic HD 4870 1GB
150Gb WD Velociraptor 10K rpm
3x1Tb Samsung Spinpoint in Raid 5
WC set: EK Supreme Plexi + TFC Xchanger 240 + Laing MCP 355
Pic

Puppywhirl

Awesome, thanks for all your insight, I really appreciate it. I think I will give it a go. Haha, at least Windows should (in theory) load up super fast everytime

fade2green514

try raid 0 if your motherboard supports it. you remind me of myself... i actually notice that all my applications and games (including windows) loads a lot faster than without raid 0 configuration and i keep all my files (downloaded, ripped, etc..) on my 250gb hard drive.

RAID = redundant array of inexpensive disks.

i chose raid 0 for my system disk because it can crash without me losing anything that isnt on a CD or DVD. i can reformat it whenever i want and still keep all my files organized neatly in folders where i want them on my storage drive. reinstalling windows and getting everything configured the way i want normally takes a day or two but i only do it about once a year now.

read up on it:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redunda...ependent_disks
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAID_0#RAID_0

btw, its suggested you use two identical drives for doing a raid 0 array.. that way you dont lose any performance or memory.
oh.. and keep a floppy drive around just in case your raid drivers need to be installed before windows. mine did.

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