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Software July 2001 • Vol.9 Issue 7 Page(s) 67-72 in print issue |
Hard Drives Guidelines For Maximizing Your Drive’s Performance | ||
Jump to first occurrence of: [FAT]  When you buy a new, blazing fast processor, it stays fast. When you buy more RAM, say an upgrade to 256MB, you continue to have 256MB of memory. But when you buy a new hard drive, something strange and unfortunate happens. It degrades. Perhaps not physically—although that's a definite risk—but with regular use, the performance you get from your drive will gradually deteriorate. This decline will likely stem from two causes: 1) The fuller a hard drive gets, the slower it tends to perform. As it approaches full capacity, the drive may even cease to function properly; 2) In the process of being used, copied, deleted, and moved, files tend to spread out across a drive, causing the disk to work harder in order to find any given file's many pieces. Tied to these are related issues, like how installing more applications will weigh down Windows, but here we'll focus on the physical drive itself and what you can do to maximize it's performance, both today and into the future. Your First Line Of Defense: Windows Utilities Windows 98 and Windows Me come stocked with three main utilities (all of which can be accessed by clicking Start, choosing Programs, Accessories, and then System Tools) for keeping your hard drive running smoothly. We'll get you familiarized with how to use these and how to automate them so you don't forget to keep your drive in top shape.
 Disk Cleanup. Garbage is the #1 biohazard on your hard drive. This may be programs no longer used that are clogging your disk capacity and Windows Registry. It may be old data that only serves to consume space. Just like you perform spring-cleaning on your house, Disk Cleanup does the same for your hard drive. 1. The options you'll encounter in Disk Cleanup will depend on your system. In WinMe, you may only find the Recycle Bin listed. Clicking the View Files button will show you all of the files listed in the Recycle Bin, and from these you can select which to keep or delete. If you simply check the box next to Recycle Bin in your list and proceed, all Recycle Bin files will be deleted. 2. Under the More Options tab, WinMe offers you three Clean Up shortcuts to other Windows areas. Under Windows Components, you'll access the Windows Setup tab under Control Panel's Add/Remove Programs dialog box, from which you can uninstall any Windows elements you're not using. The Installed Programs button takes you to the Install/Uninstall tab in the same Control Panel section. Finally, the System Restore shortcut takes you deep within Windows' Hard Disk tab in File System Properties. Here you can change the amount of memory allocated to restore sessions. Novices are urged to use caution at this point. There is always the risk of changing or eliminating components necessary to your system's operation. When in doubt, leave the settings as you found them.
Disk Defragmenter. Commonly called Defrag (a carry-over from the DOS days), this utility is your hard drive's organizer. When data is written to a drive, it is stored in bundles of sectors called clusters. (In reality, Microsoft changed the name cluster to allocation unit as of MS-DOS 4.0.) Files can span any number of clusters, and because each cluster is related to the next for that file, clusters need not be adjacent; they can be spread out over the entire drive. Through the repeated process of writing and deleting files, this spreading of clusters, or fragmentation, means your hard drive has to cover more ground looking for related clusters. This means slower system performance. Disk Defragmenter places all your related clusters together to minimize the work required of your hard drive. 1. When you first start Disk Defragmenter, the program will display a list of all the fixed hard drive volumes (in Windows 2000) or a pull-down list of all fixed drives (in WinMe). Remember that partitions on a drive show up as separate volumes. In Win2000, you can also see each volume's file system, capacity, and free space. The more information there is on a drive the longer it will take to defragment. Your first task is to see whether or not the volume is significantly fragmented. To do this, highlight the volume and click the Analyze button. A lot of red in the Analysis Display bar can indicate serious fragmentation. 2. For more details in Win2000, click the View Report button when the Analysis Complete dialog box appears. Here you'll see exactly how the drive is fragmented and see if Windows recommends that you run the defrag routine. 3. In WinMe, you merely select the drive (or all of them) you want to defrag. The Settings button gives you access to three useful features. a. Rearrange Program Files So My Programs Start Faster. As on a CD, a drive platter delivers its fastest performance at the outer rings. This option lets Windows rearrange your data so program files are located in these high-speed regions so applications start faster. b. Check The Drive For Errors. This runs a Standard ScanDisk test concurrently with your defrag operation. c. You can also select whether these settings apply only for this Disk Defragmenter session or should be applied each time you defrag your hard drive. 4. As Disk Defragmenter is running, you'll note a button named Show Details. This brings up a map of your hard drive, using different colors to illustrate different types of fragments. It can be fun to watch Defrag as it shifts data around your drive, but the operation will run more quickly if you click the Hide Details button and let the utility run in minimized mode. While you should avoid filling any drive volume beyond 75% of its capacity, Defrag has difficulty performing its job when your volume passes 85% capacity. If you try to run the program in such a cramped environment, Defrag will alert you to the problem, suggest that you try to free some additional space, and offer you the option to proceed anyway.
ScanDisk. ScanDisk examines your hard drive for file problems, especially lost or cross-linked clusters, and can probe the physical media for defects. Think of it as a physical exam for your disk. Especially on older drives, running ScanDisk regularly is a must because if you start losing sectors to physical errors, there's no way to recover the data contained in those areas. Also keep in mind that, like a cancer, sector damage generally starts small, then metastasizes, devouring your disk. ScanDisk can help you catch and cure early warning signs of potential widespread damage. 1. ScanDisk begins by asking you to select which drive you wish to scan. Unfortunately, there is no option for selecting multiple volumes at once. If time is short, begin with testing your primary volume, usually drive C:. 2. Next, select whether you want to run a Standard or Thorough test. Thorough will check the volume for physical errors whereas Standard only examines for corruption in files and folders. Be warned that Thorough tests can take many hours, especially on larger drives. 3. The Options button next to Thorough offers several interesting features. a. In the Areas Of The Disk To Scan section, you have a few choices. Disks have two types of areas: system, where items such as boot files are stored, and data, which is essentially everything else. When ScanDisk detects a bad media sector, it attempts to move the contents of that sector to a different healthy sector. Sometimes, the data is too corrupted to extract. Also, some older programs only know to look for system files in a specific location, so moving them may still not fix the problem. Normally, you'll want to scan both system and data areas, but advanced users may want to select one or the other. b. Do Not Perform Write-testing. A Thorough test reads every sector of your disk. By default, the sector's contents are then written back to the sector to confirm that both read and write functions are operating normally. If you need to save time, check this box to disable write-testing. c. Do Not Repair Bad Sectors In Hidden And System Files. Again, some applications may not work if key system files are moved, as normally happens when ScanDisk discovers a bad sector. Check this box to let these files sit where they are. Realize that faulty system sectors may quickly result in a defective drive. 4. Check the Automatically Fix Errors box so ScanDisk won't prompt you every time it encounters a defect. The only reason not to fix an error is if it occurs within a system file. Use the Options list (above) to correct for this. Otherwise, if you're facing many disk errors, manually approving each correction can become extremely tedious.
Also, in WinMe if you want to eliminate the automatic ScanDisk that initiates every time your system accidentally resets, check the Prompt Before Fixing Errors On Improper Shutdown option in the lower right corner. 6. While ScanDisk is running, if anything changes on the volume being scanned, even the creation of a little temp file, the program will detect that the volume's contents have changed and start its process over from the beginning. With frequent interruptions, ScanDisk may never finish its job. This is why you want to exit or suspend all possible activity while the application is running. a. Press CTRL-ALT-DELETE to bring up the Task Manager or Close Program dialog box. Highlight every running item that isn't Explorer and click the End Task button. (There is no batch selection, so you'll have to end them individually.) Sometimes it may take many seconds for a program to fully close. b. If your system uses a screen saver, you'll need to disable it. Right-click an empty spot on the Windows Desktop, select Properties, and then click the Screen Saver tab. In the Screen Saver pull-down menu, select (None). Click the Apply button, then OK. Once ScanDisk is finished, you can return here to re-enable your screen saver. Maintenance Wizard. To help consumers and their usual urge to procrastinate, Microsoft developed the Maintenance Wizard for Windows 9x and WinMe. This routine lets you schedule times and procedures for Windows to automatically run ScanDisk, Disk Defragmenter, and Disk Cleanup without your intervention. Theoretically, you can turn the wizard on and never worry about disk maintenance again. (In reality, we suggest a more cautious attitude.) The easiest way to use Maintenance Wizard is to start the application, select the Express setup option, and accept all the program's defaults. However, to illustrate, we'll select the Custom setting in WinMe and step you through the various options. 1. Select A Maintenance Schedule. This designates one of three time slots (nights, days, or evenings) for the wizard to do its work. In general, we suggest the Nights setting (midnight to 3:00 a.m.) if you leave your system on around the clock. Then click the Next button to continue.
3. Speed Up Programs. This automates the running of Disk Defragmenter. Note that the Reschedule button gives you options for when the utility will run, which may not necessarily mesh with the settings you selected in the Select A Maintenance Schedule screen. We recommend running Defrag at least once per month, more if the drive is under heavy use. 4. Delete Unnecessary Files. Here, the wizard presets you with a list of file types to periodically delete, ranging from temporary Internet files (which are safe to delete, although this may slow your browsing time) to the application debugging information (which nearly all consumers ignore). In general, you should be able to select all of these file types with no negative effects to your system. 5. Scan Hard Disk For Errors. Choose whether or not to let Windows check your files and folders for errors and fix them automatically. 6. The last screen offers a synopsis of your new settings and a checkbox to enable the wizard to run immediately after you click the Finish button. Check Your Configuration We've now examined the routine ways to keep your hard drive in good shape. Unfortunately, drive problems can arise from a number of sources and require some less obvious solutions. Upgrade. Just like a stereo never sounds as good after the first week or two of listening, you grow used to your drive's performance level. Even if the hard drive stays in the same shape as the day you bought it, technology marches on, specifications steadily improve, and you're ultimately left with a dinosaur, albeit a healthy one. If speed matters to you and your hard drive feels comparatively poky, consider buying a newer, larger unit and make your current hard drive into a secondary drive. You can copy the contents of your old drive to the new one and hardly miss a beat. BIOS Support. The BIOS (Basic Input/Output System) controls how your motherboard communicates with surrounding ports and peripherals, including hard drives. Older BIOSes may not recognize a newer hard drive or may only register part of its full capacity. As with other system components, it's important to periodically check for software updates for your hardware to ensure the device is working to its full potential. However, while companies like AMI and Award are the original BIOS designers, the motherboard manufacturer is responsible for fine-tuning the BIOS to the board's own peculiarities. This is why you normally seek BIOS updates from your motherboard manufacturer, not the BIOS company.
FAT System. The FAT (file allocation table) organizes how information is written to hard drive and determines how large each cluster is based on the size of the partition. (See the "FAT Cluster Sizes" sidebar for a breakdown on FAT systems and their partition/cluster sizes.) Cluster size becomes important to drive performance because of how files are written. Say you have a 40GB hard drive, all partitioned into one big volume, formatted with FAT32 under WinMe. This would give you cluster sizes of 32KB. Now say you create a short text document of only 3KB. Because only one file, or part of one file, can be written to any given cluster, a 32KB cluster is assigned to your 3KB file, leaving 29KB wasted. Over the space of a large drive, this wasted space can accumulate into possibly hundreds of megabytes. In general, more current FAT systems use smaller cluster sizes given the same volume size, so you may want to both use smaller partitions and a more modern FAT. However, juggling numerous partitions and their respective contents may be more of a headache than you bargained for, and you may find that some of your applications may not work under your new file system, so use caution. Some versions of Windows offer a FAT conversion utility, which can be accessed by clicking Start, choosing Programs, Accessories, System Tools, and clicking Drive Converter. Win2000 users wanting to convert to NTFS (NT file system) will need to open a command prompt and type in the convert command convert X:/fs:ntfs (where X is the drive letter). Note that Windows is generally backward-compatible with previous FAT systems, letting you run multiple FATs on different volumes simultaneously. Separate Channels. Generally, PC motherboards offer two IDE (Integrated Drive Electronics) channel connectors, each of which is capable of supporting two IDE drives via a ribbon cable. If both drives on a single channel are passing data concurrently, especially if the drives are high-speed hard drives moving steady masses of files, this may result in a traffic jam on your IDE channel (technically called an interleaving error) which will impair drive performance. If you're using two hard drives, keep them on separate IDE channels for best results.
Virtual Memory. When your RAM space isn't large enough to handle the load your system needs, an area on your hard drive known as virtual memory manages the overflow. In general, Windows does a fine job managing virtual memory on its own, changing the area's size to suit necessity. (Windows often defaults the paging file, another name for virtual memory, to an initial size of 1.5 times the RAM size and a maximum size of 3 times the RAM.) However, a changing virtual memory size means the contents of that area are in semi-constant flux, requiring greater seek times when that data is needed. You can save your hard drive some extra work by fixing the size of your paging file, generally to twice your RAM amount. In WinMe: 1. Click Start, choose Settings, Control Panel, and System. 2. Select the Performance Tab. 3. Then, click the Virtual Memory button. In Win2000: 1. Click Start, choose Settings, Control Panel, and double-click System. 2. Select the Advanced tab. 3. Then click the Performance Options button. 4. Finally, click the Change button. Once you've made your changes, click OK. If you have the option, it's best to place your paging file on a drive that is not otherwise being heavily used. You can also distribute your paging file across multiple drives. Compression. For those on a budget, it can be tempting to compress a drive rather than purchase a newer, larger one. Compression uses an algorithm to eliminate "wasted" information from files, thus shrinking their physical size for storage. Uncompressing replaces this deleted information while the file is in use. Unfortunately, the process of compressing and uncompressing takes time and, when applied to an entire drive, can substantially impact the system's performance. Windows 95/98 and WinMe come bundled with several compression options, of which DriveSpace (found by clicking Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools, and DriveSpace) is the most famous. However, because of the negative performance ramifications, we urge you not to use such drive-wide compression tools. A better approach is to use the options in Disk Cleanup to compress old files, such as those that haven't been used in over a year. Outlook has similar archive compression tools. You can even use a third-party application like WinZip (http://www.winzip.com) to compress given batches of files or folders that you want stashed in long-term storage. Consider SCSI. Despite the technology's nearly total dominance among consumer PCs, another, often superior, drive interface is available. SCSI (Small Computer System Interface) is a considerably more expensive drive type that generally requires a separate controller card. The advantage of this is that, whereas IDE places a substantial processing load on your CPU, the SCSI controller absorbs most of this load itself, which means your CPU is free to handle other pressing tasks. SCSI is a more appropriate format for server machines, but if you're working with a PC loaded with peripherals and constantly handling processor- or drive-intensive applications, you may want to look further into the SCSI option. Prepare For Disaster Hard drive maintenance is just as much a state of mind as a software utility. You need to assume that things will go wrong (because they will) and plan accordingly. Maintenance is about minimizing problems, but if you anticipate disaster and plan for it, your data losses and downtime will be tremendously minimized. Scheduling Armageddon. The number one contributor to hard drive trouble is software corruption and misconfiguration. It's an unfortunate fact that, given enough time and use, Windows will ultimately implode. When this happens, you might get off lightly with a simple operating system reinstallation. The less fortunate will end up formatting their hard drives and starting over from scratch. Interestingly, many users are amazed to discover the amount of unnecessary junk that accumulates on their systems over time (which, of course, is part of what leads to incompatibilities and corruption). When rebuilding after a drive format, you might find you only need half the programs that were on your system before it crashed. This is normal, and this is how your system should be configured: lean and efficient without the extra weight of fat. So do yourself a favor and make an annual ritual out of formatting your drive. This will force you to re-examine what content is needed and what is fluff. If you know a format is coming up, you'll take the precautions necessary to identify your data and back it up onto media like CD-R (CD-recordable), from which it can be easily reinstalled. The object is to minimize your garbage applications. You can most easily accomplish this reformat procedure through two methods. 1. Buy a high-capacity tape drive. Once you have your essential applications installed to your hard drive and nothing else—we'll call this the "core configuration"—make a complete system backup and store the tape somewhere safe. This is a precautionary step in addition to your other system backups that will contain secondary applications and all your data. You won't necessarily know at what point corruption took root in your system, but you will have a fully functional core configuration on hand and ready to go, just in case your latest tape's restore session doesn't fix the problem. As needed, you can go back and begin adding secondary apps and data to your core configuration on the hard drive. The object is to get you up and working in the shortest possible time. 2. Alternatively, use a second hard drive. If you don't want the time and expense involved in tape drives, purchase a second hard drive on which to install your core configuration. Use a copying application like Symantec's Ghost (http://www.symantec.com) to mirror the entire drive contents onto the disk that will be your primary hard drive. Remove the second from the system and store it someplace safe. This way, if catastrophe strikes your system, even an electrical one which might physically destroy your primary hard drive, you have a back-up drive on hand that can be installed and running within minutes. Do You Know Where Your Apps Are? Some people are organized, and some are not. Whether your boxed software is spread from the attic to the garage or you downloaded three dozen diverse shareware applications from who knows where, reinstallation will be much smoother if you know where everything is located. 1. Prioritize. Your core applications should be kept together, perhaps with a rubber band (not too tight) or in a box. Keep these within reach of your PC. Your secondary apps can go together on a shelf anywhere. The key is to a) keep your core apps separate so you can reinstall them in a hurry and b) pick one place for your discs to live, period, so they don't get scattered about. 2. Create archives. When you download software, whether it's a driver update or a new game, download it into the default directory from which you will execute it (such as C:\NewInstalls). However, before you execute or uncompress the file, copy it into an archive folder. We recommend two such folders: C:\Updates and C:\ProgramArchive. Updates can hold anything from DLL (dynamic-link library) files to BIOS revisions to a new USB (Universal Serial Bus) driver. ProgramArchive is where you put all of your compressed EXE (executable) and Zip files. Periodically, backup these two folders to removable media. Now, when it comes time to reinstall after a disaster, all of your software is in one or two highly organized locations. Trying to hunt down all these files from scratch would take you many hours or even days. Offload. These days, the urge to create massive archives of digital audio, photo, and movie files is almost irresistible. Music lovers might rack up several gigabytes in MP3 files alone, culled from their CD collections and other sources. It doesn't take long for such archives to start dragging down your drive's speed. Since discs can play back multimedia as effectively as diskettes, why not offload your multimedia to CD-R or recordable DVD? The exact media you choose may be determined by the size of your archives and/or files. (Video archivers will want DVD.) This carries the dual advantages of both freeing your hard drive(s) and having a safe removable archive in case disaster strikes your system. Final Word. If this sounds like a lot of work to endure for a problem that may or may not ever affect you, take heart. With Windows' Maintenance Wizard, the bulk of the dirty work is managed for you automatically. For additional help, you can turn to third-party utility suites such as McAfee Utilities (http://www.mcafee.com), Ontrack Data's SystemSuite (http://www.ontrack.com), and Symantec's Norton SystemWorks (http://www.symantec.com). With the grunt work handled, the remaining hard drive maintenance is merely a process of developing good habits and taking commonsense precautions. Hope for the best but plan for the worst, and your hard drive will deliver many years of top-notch performance.  by William Van Winkle
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