HD size question

[SG]

I have a 32MHZ p4 system running XP-sp2 and keep it clean and defragged.
I am wondering if having only 20GB free in a 80GB drive might cause a slight
slowdown. If replying please ignore all other possible causes other than HD.
SG

 

[db.·.. >]

not really an issue
until you reach free
space equating to
15% of the hd size.

at this point it is unlikely
you can successfully do
a defrag because of this
limitation.

also if you find you
have only 20 %
percent of free disk space
then you might simply
consider adding another
disk to your system
to increase the overall
disk space for your system.

incidentally, since you mentioned
"clean", it is my bet that
your disk is not as clean
as you may think.

i recommend disk wiping
the free space because
the free space is not absent of
data, just marked for
re writing.

and wiping it away on
my system does improve
disk performance.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

I have a 32MHZ p4 system running XP-sp2 and keep it clean and defragged.
I am wondering if having only 20GB free in a 80GB drive might cause a slight
slowdown.

No.


If replying please ignore all other possible causes other than HD.
SG

 

[JS]

20GB free space is 25% free space and is more than enough available drive
space so I doubt that's the cause of the slight slow down. However if the
drive is starting to fail that could be a problem in that you could be
running in a lower/slower DMA or worse yet PIO mode data transfer rate.

Some tools to check your drive are as follows:
HD Tune: http://www.hdtune.com/

SpeedFan has an online analysis feature for hard drives.
http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php

PassMark's BurnInTest which has options to perform numerous test including
the Disk: http://www.passmark.com/products/bit.htm

JS
www.pagestart.com