Got a HD performance ? for you Pro's

[jim.t]

I have a older Maxtor 3.2GB drive that was initially OEM partitioned into 2 logical drives. Last year my OS got corrupted and had to reformat the HD and reload win95. During the format process we(tech and myself) couldn't get the HD partioned the way it was from the OEM, so we allocated one large area for 3.2GB. The problem now is the HD seems to pause alot for about several seconds to "tcal" or something else(don't know what). I've gone thru the performance tab on the system icon and set it to "network" to allocate more RAM for a quicker process. It seems to have helped a bit, but the pauses still continue. I'm afraid if I try to burn any CD's this might jeopardize the process. Anyone have any insight as to what I could do to minimize this?? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks, Jim.

[BFlurie]

FAT32? Has to be if you can see all 3.2 GB w/only one partition. Since you had to reinstall Windoz, the HD format may not be the only thing that changed (performance settings). How had it been partitioned before? Why couldn't you reproduce it? To repartition now, you'd have to use Partition Magic or something similar to avoid wiping your data (w/Fdisk).

[jim.t]

It is FAT32 on a P-166MMX/64MB and I believe it was partitioned at c=1.7gb, d=1.5gb. I really was hoping that there was something besides re-partitioning that might help my situation, like for instance, Microsoft's Powertools or something that could effectively stop this **** repetative timeout it keeps taking.

[BFlurie]

The symptoms you describe could be due to alot of things -- not necessarily your HD status. Are you sure the difference happened right after the reinstall? A 166MHz is going to be sorely taxed by recent hardware/software. The symptoms sound like possible Swapfile thrashing and/or resource juggling. How large are your System.dat & User.dat (registry) files? How many programs are running in the background (seen by hitting Ctl-Alt-Del). How much free space on C drive for your swapfile? Any problems showing in Device Manager? The questions are many -- doubt if there's any ONE tweak that'll answer them. A general study & familiarization of "performance" aspects would be helpful. Look at this post I made w/several links:
http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/Forum1/HTML/008004.html

[jim.t]

Yes, I'm sure this timeout/tcal/windows mgmt? (whatever it is) happened immediately after we reformatted the HD to 3.2GB. The support tech and myself couldn't get the HD partitioned back as it came from OEM, so he left it unpartitioned. I'm not sure what other kinds of things might be decided when the formatting happens (ie, system performance issues), but when it was partitioned it never took coffee breaks http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/smile.gif.
Since it was mentioned, how would you reset/correct settings for the swapfile in win95. That may be a bottleneck also. I have a screensaver, security, realaudio, etc. in the system tray that's probably eating alot of resources. Anything you can suggest would be helpful, and in the meantime I'll keep reading. Thanks.

[This message has been edited by jim.t (edited 08-21-2000).]

[BFlurie]

Just had a thought. Are you sure the HD was FAT32 before the reinstall? I ask because it seems unusual for the OEM to mutiple partition a HD unless they HAD to. FAT32 is alittle slower than FAT16, and that difference could be exaggerated w/a 166 CPU.

[jim.t]

Waiting for an answer from OEM tech support, 'cause I didn't know. The drive would still be partitioned if I didn't have that lightning strike take out my modem, speakers, etc. I first thought I had 2 physical hard drives since I knew very little; a little less than currently. Will get back when I hear.

[jim.t]

The OEM tech told me that the FAT16 partitions would only work up to 2.1gb and were put on because at the time(4/97) FAT32 was not an option. They want to reformat the HD and reload win95/drivers/etc. That's OK with me, but the tech's couldn't get it partitioned the last time!! Why should it work now? They also told me that tweaking and adjusting programs would not be an option. Any thoughts, guys??? Should I do it all again?? Thanks, Jim.
BTW, I was shooting email back and forth with Gateway all yesterday. Couldn't get 'em on the phone. http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/frown.gif

[BFlurie]

It's up to you. This is an example of the additional overhead of FAT32 being exaggerated by your old CPU. Why they couldn't partition the drive -- sounds like "operator error". Maybe they were using Fdisk -- a buggy program at best.

[jim.t]

Thanks BFlurie, I guess I'll have to give this some thought. It was a bear that last time I went thru this, not to mention hearing my wife run her mouth about me screwing up the system http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/smile.gif. Oh well, 'preciate the help. Don't go too far away, I might be hollaring for you again. Thanks, Jim.