defragmenting question

[SPY46]

well my computer only has 3% free space, no its not top of the line or have
the amount of memory that a REAL computer would have, so eventually i will
need to buy some more memory.

now then, is there a way that i can SELECT what files get defragmented or
can you only defragment the computer as a whole?

if i kept defragmenting my computer would it defragment more/new/different
files after each one or would the same files get defragmented each time?

 

[Shenan Stanley]

well my computer only has 3% free space, no its not top of the line
or have the amount of memory that a REAL computer would have, so
eventually i will need to buy some more memory.

now then, is there a way that i can SELECT what files get
defragmented or can you only defragment the computer as a whole?

if i kept defragmenting my computer would it defragment
more/new/different files after each one or would the same files get
defragmented each time?

You need to free up space.
Perhaps by creating CD/DVDs of files you do not change/use often.
Perhaps by copying to an external hard disk drive or some other device.

Disk Space and Memory are not the same thing.

In any case - if you have 3% free space - perhaps some of this advice will
help you clear up enough space to get things better organized and performing
better as well as make you feel better...

Locate all of the software you have installed on your computer.
(the installation media - CDs, downloaded files, etc)
Collect these CD/DVDs and files together in a central and safe
place along with their CD keys and such. Make backups of these
installation media sets using your favorite copying method (CD/DVD Burner
and application, Disk copier, etc.) You'll be glad to know that if you
have a CD/DVD burner, you may be able to use a free application to make a
duplicate copy of your CDs. One such application is ISORecorder:

ISORecorder page (with general instructions on use):
http://isorecorder.alexfeinman.com/isorecorder.htm

More full function applications (free) for CD/DVD burning would be:

CDBurnerXP Pro
http://www.cdburnerxp.se/

DeepBurner Free
http://www.deepburner.com/

ImgBurn (burn ISO images)
http://www.imgburn.com/

Final Burner Free
http://www.protectedsoft.com/descr_fb.php

BWGBurn
http://sourceforge.net/projects/bwgburn

BurnAware FREE Edition
http://www.glorylogic.com/

Another Option would be to search the web with Pricewatch.com or
Dealsites.net and find deals on Products like Ahead Nero and/or Roxio.

Ahead Nero
http://www.nero.com/

Roxio Easy Media Creator
http://www.roxio.com/

If you are comfortable with the stability of your system, you can delete the
uninstall files for the patches that Windows XP has installed...
http://www3.telus.net/dandemar/spack.htm

You can run Disk Cleanup - built into Windows XP - to erase all but your
latest restore point and cleanup even more "loose files"..

How to use Disk Cleanup
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310312

You can turn off hibernation if it is on and you don't use it..

When you hibernate your computer, Windows saves the contents of the system's
memory to the hiberfil.sys file. As a result, the size of the hiberfil.sys
file will always equal the amount of physical memory in your system. If you
don't use the hibernate feature and want to recapture the space that Windows
uses for the hiberfil.sys file, perform the following steps:

- Start the Control Panel Power Options applet (go to Start, Settings,
Control Panel, and click Power Options).
- Select the Hibernate tab, clear the "Enable hibernation" check box, then
click OK; although you might think otherwise, selecting Never under the
"System hibernates" option on the Power Schemes tab doesn't delete the
hiberfil.sys file.
- Windows will remove the "System hibernates" option from the Power Schemes
tab and delete the hiberfil.sys file.

You can control how much space your System Restore can use...

1. Click Start, right-click My Computer, and then click Properties.
2. Click the System Restore tab.
3. Highlight one of your drives (or C: if you only have one) and click on
the "Settings" button.
4. Change the percentage of disk space you wish to allow.. I suggest moving
the slider until you have just about 1GB (1024MB or close to that...)
5. Click OK.. Then Click OK again.

You can control how much space your Temporary Internet Files can utilize...

Empty your Temporary Internet Files and shrink the size it stores to a
size between 64MB and 128MB..

- Open ONE copy of Internet Explorer.
- Select TOOLS -> Internet Options.
- Under the General tab in the "Temporary Internet Files" section, do the
following:
- Click on "Delete Cookies" (click OK)
- Click on "Settings" and change the "Amount of disk space to use:" to
something between 64MB and 128MB. (It may be MUCH larger right
now.)
- Click OK.
- Click on "Delete Files" and select to "Delete all offline contents"
(the checkbox) and click OK. (If you had a LOT, this could take 2-10
minutes or more.)
- Once it is done, click OK, close Internet Explorer, re-open Internet
Explorer.

You can use an application that scans your system for log files and
temporary files and use that to get rid of those:

Ccleaner (Free!)
http://www.ccleaner.com/

Other ways to free up space..

SequoiaView
http://www.win.tue.nl/sequoiaview/

JDiskReport
http://www.jgoodies.com/freeware/jdiskreport/index.html

Those can help you visually discover where all the space is being used.

If you are concerned over less than 5GB of space total at any given time
being freed up on your hard disk drive - then something is wrong and
you would be better off spending a little and putting in a drive that is
likely 3-8 times as large as what you have not and not concerning
yourself over such a small amount of space OR you seriously need
to consider what you really need on the system and what should be
archived.

Basic housekeeping 101... - in an actual home, if your storage area gets
full - you either have to decide what you really should have in the storage
area and what could go or you have to find a new place to store stuff
that will accommodate everything you need. You don't walk into a
warehouse of cars, look at the filing cabinet in the corner where
you keep all the records for the cars and decide that if you move it out of
the warehouse - you will have more room for cars. ;-)

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

well my computer only has 3% free space, no its not top of the line or have
the amount of memory that a REAL computer would have, so eventually i will
need to buy some more memory.

A word on the terminology: "memory" is RAM, the thing you probably
have 256MB or 512MB of. Are you asking about that, or about disk
space, the thing you probably have 40GB or more of? Please don't mix
the two up. Since you talk about defragmenting, you are presumably
talking about disk space, but please clarify this to be sure.

Assuming that you are asking about disk space, how large is your hard
drive?

You could perhaps free up some disk space, but that would likely be a
stopgap measure. The only real solution is to get a larger (or second)
drive. Let me point out that you can buy an 80GB drive these days for
as little as $30 US. Adding that to a desktop computer is almost
always very easy, and would solve your disk space problems very
inexpensively.

now then, is there a way that i can SELECT what files get defragmented or
can you only defragment the computer as a whole?

if i kept defragmenting my computer would it defragment more/new/different
files after each one or would the same files get defragmented each time?

You defragment a *drive*, not the computer. It defragments the files
on that drive that are fragmented. If some files have changed since
the last time you did it, they might have gotten fragmented again, and
therefore would get defragmented again. If once-defragmented files
haven't changed, they haven't gotten fragmented again, and they don't
get defragmented the second time.

 

[Gerry]

You need to increase free disk to 15%.

If your drive is formatted as NTFS another potential gain arises with
your operating system on your C drive. In the Windows Directory of
your C partition you will have some Uninstall folders in your Windows
folder typically: $NtServicePackUninstall$ and $NtUninstallKB282010$
etc. These files may be compressed or not compressed. If compressed
the text of the folder name appears in blue characters. If not
compressed you can compress them. Right click on each folder and
select Properties, General, Advanced and check the box before Compress
contents to save Disk Space. On the General Tab you can see the amount
gained by deducting the size on disk from the size. Folder
compression is only an option on a NTFS formatted drive / partition.

The default allocation to System Restore is 12% on your C partition
which is over generous. I would reduce it to 700 mb. Right click your My
Computer icon on the Desktop and select System Restore. Place the cursor
on your C drive select Settings but this time find the slider and drag
it to the left until it reads 700 mb and exit. When you get to the
Settings screen click on Apply and OK and exit.

Another default setting which could be wasteful is that for temporary
internet files, especially if you do not store offline copies on disk.
The default allocation is 3% of drive. Depending on your attitude to
offline copies you could reduce this to 1% or 2%. In Internet Explorer
select Tools, Internet Options, General, Temporary Internet Files,
Settings to make the change. At the same time look at the number of days
history is held.

The default allocation for the Recycle Bin is 10 % of drive. Change to
5%, which should be sufficient. In Windows Explorer place the cursor
on your Recycle Bin, right click and select Properties, Global and
move the slider from 10% to 5%. However, try to avoid letting it get
too full as if it is full and you delete a file by mistake it will
bypass the Recycle Bin and be gone for ever.

Select Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Disk CleanUp to
Empty your Recycle Bin and Remove Temporary Internet Files. Also
select Start, All Programs, accessories, System Tools, Disk CleanUp,
More Options, System Restore and remove all but the latest System
Restore point. Run Disk Defragmenter.

Select Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, System
Information, Tools, Dr Watson and verify that the box before "Append to
existing log" is NOT checked. This means the next time the log is
written it will overwrite rather than add to the existing file.

The default maximum size setting for Event Viewer logs is too large.
Reset the maximum for each log from 512 kb to 128 kb and set it to
overwrite.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308427/en-us



--
Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Bob Harris]

As others have said, first cleanup files, move files to CD or external USB
disk, etc.

Then worry about defragmenting.

Note that XP requires a large amount of scratch (temporary) disk space,
depending on what it is doing. Having only 3% disk free is asking to have a
crash. If not today, then after the next monthly set of updates or the one
after that.

But seriously, if after cleanup you are still tight on disk space, get a new
hard drive.

If a desktop PC, it probably can handle at least two, maybe four internal
hard drives. Once installed and formatted, move all personal files to the
new hard drive and leave the original for the operating system and programs.

If a laptop, replace the hard drive with a larger one and "clone" the old
drive to the new one.

If you are not comfortable with opening the PC box and/or cloning, be aware
that any store that sells PCs probably has a service center that can
add/replace a hard drive and clone. In case of a replacement, be sure to
get the old hard drive back. Keep it until you are sure that the PC works
OK, then either destroy it, or possibly mount it in a USB enclosure and use
it as a backup drive. (Depending on its size, it might be better to buy a
new USB hard drive for backups.)

In all cases, look for sales at local PC stores. Sometimes installation is
free, if you buy a new hard drive.

A few cautions about hard drive size:

(1) Older BIOSes (motherboards) were limited to 32 Gig. Many 40-80 Gig
disks have an option (via jumpers) to limit their size to 32 Gig, in case
that is required.
(2) Some BIOSes of intermediate age were limited to 127 Gig.
(3) XP (original) was limited to 127 Gig.
(4) XP with SP-2 can handle more than 1000 Gig, if the BIOS can handle it.
(5) Avoid so-called "overlay" software as a means to get around a BIOS
limitation. Such software is very specific to a given PC, operating system,
etc. Such a hard drive may be unreadable on most other systems.
(6) Instead, if you need to get around a BIOS limitation, think about a
PCI-to-ATA adapter card (if a desktop). Such a card comes with its own BIOS
for handling disks.

Good luck.

 

[Xandros]

3% free space will not enable you space to defrag. Defragging is like
cleaning your garage. You need to be able to move items to another location
and then move them back into the proper order. The less open space you have
for moving things around the move limited your ability is to defrag. 3% is
far to small of a space.