Here is one for you...

[Nathan]

When you install Win 95 (not 98) on a freshly formatted hard drive, is the disk fully optimizied after you are done with the install?

I do have a reason for the question.

[MrEd]

[nevermind, I don't know a lot about 95]

[This message has been edited by MrEd (edited 09-02-99).]

[LED]

No, I believe that any disk which would be ran by the OS can be fine tuned after the install for a performance increase (ie. swap file, Updated BM drivers, BIOS, Timings, FATS)

[Nathan]

Next time you do a fresh install 95, run defrag right after it's done. You will notice how fragmented it is. Then reboot the machine and run defrag again. You will notice how it's not fully optimizied. Then install some of your software and defrag it again. Then go and set your swap file to permanent at say 100 MB, min & max, for this demo. After it reboots, run defrag one more time. Here is what I notice about the results;

1. When you install a program or the operating system, it doesn't mean the hard drive is OK as far as fragmentation goes.

2. Why the fragmentation after the first reboot? One because there are "unmoveable" files that 95 moves to the end of the data on the drive. Another is the swap file parts have moved to areas that are empty.

3. Theory states that you don't want the hard drive fragmented to get the best performance, right? If you let windows control the swap file, it can fragment. If it's set to permanent minimum and maximum, it won't fragment.

4. Windows has a habit of just throwing the files back on the hard drive. After a while they are thrown everywhere and windows loses track of what they are, henceforth, lost clusters. Defraging corrects this.

5. By defragging more often, it takes less time to reorganize your hard drive. You defrag in minutes rather than hours.

6. Now 98 has only a few "unmoveable" files. Henceforth, you don't need to defrag as often in the beginning.

Wow. This was longer than I thought. Sorry. Hope that helps some of you.

[Bleeding Edge]

*APPLAUSE*

[welsh wizard]

Thanks for the tip,


If this is a double post we got dif prob
as when posted I just went back to index!