format machine

**veryjonny** · Sep 22nd, 2002, 10:43 AM

hi,

I usually find my pc becoming very sluggish after 4-5 months after a fresh install. And defrag, chkdsk such things do not help improve the performance untill I format it again and reinstall everything.

Well, would comeone suggest/advice/point out whats the prob. or is it just because its windows???

PS: I have winXP pro.

**DiGiTaIErRoR** · Sep 23rd, 2002, 05:58 AM

You're probably just eating up your RAM.

Then you remove DLL, drivers, programs, etc. from memory when you reformat.

Also, low disk space can cause slow down.

**Pc_Madness** · Sep 23rd, 2002, 06:09 AM

Yep... well

XP uses up a heap of ram as far as I can tell (same os, 256mb). Soo.. if your apps use up all of the memory, Windows uses harddrive space ask a slower form of ram... but of course if you've used up a heap of harddisk space, then you in abit of trouble.

also, check whats running at startup
Run - msconfig
As I posted in the other thread about programs running at startup, these apps can take up a fair bit of memory.

Finally, if you do a reformat, is your system a prebuilt one (ie compaq, ibm), as they give you little setup cds, which in my past expirence, are the biggest loads of crap. I had one for my old compaq, which would only run as long as the same harddrive was in the system, and when I added another one, bye bye comp. Then with my IBM, it claimed it would reinstall windows... it did.. after a while, but left me with the bare minium, with me having to install graphics, sound and my superkeyboard thingo.

So... try to avoid the Format, unless you know what your doing of course.

**parksie** · Sep 23rd, 2002, 06:38 AM

Starting up WinXP Pro from scratch, it takes 80 out of 512mb

**veryjonny** · Sep 23rd, 2002, 11:36 AM

First of all, I would like to thank you all for the replies...My startup doesnt contain many things( just two infact) which I need.

Also I have a Separate DC so formatting the pc is not the prob...but then after formatting, reinstalling the whole set of app. is a big pain

Its not that just at startup my pc slows but in general (after starting) all prgs appear to be sluggish....I have 256 MB, 40GB and PIV 1.5

And from the replies I feel generally no one formats their PC except my dumb self

**jim mcnamara** · Sep 23rd, 2002, 12:08 PM

Some comments:
I.
If you have an app (maybe you run it once a week)or a game that makes extensive use of the Registry - this is a mjor cause of gradual slowdown. As stuff is added/moved/updated constantly from the Registry, all Registry lookups slow down. Too many programmers use the Registry instead of the file system.

You don't want to know how many times XP hits the Registry during a normal day. If it isn't cached completely performance dies. Bigtime.

II.
Another cause of this is filling the root directory with files.
You should only have the files that were there to start with after install. Large numbers of additional files (number of entries not size) affect the file system adversely.

III.
Create a fixed-size pagefile. As the system ages, it may increase pagefile size - especially with a dynamically managed pagefile.
The pagefile will be fragmented by default, and when you have several apps minimized, you may notice things slowing down more.

Change it in Sytem Properties > Performance Options > Virtual Memory

**veryjonny** · Sep 24th, 2002, 02:18 AM

Thanks for reply....Actually I have no idea what this pagefile file, appears to be something of memory (shows size in MBs) I have increased it a bit but havent noticed an improvement in the performance of the machine

I guess I will have just format the damn thing again.

**mepaco** · Sep 24th, 2002, 10:30 AM

And from the replies I feel generally no one formats their PC except my dumb self

Very untrue. I format about once a month or more. It only takes me about 20-30 minutes and it is nice to have a clean machine. I also have two roommates who install random junk making the format very necessary sometimes. Formatting is good.

**parksie** · Sep 24th, 2002, 10:37 AM

I rarely formatted when I was on Windows.

Far too much effort. Easier to just move the old Windows directories out of the way, then install on top and move over anything you *really* need (like drivers...)

**siyan** · Sep 24th, 2002, 05:38 PM

It can get sluggish but XP is in my experience much more resilient than any previous OS.

Just be sure to clean out any useless programs that run at start up, defrag, etc and all will be okay.

Another trick would be to spread your swap file over two PHYSICAL hd's (fixed size). Don't do it if they're partitions cause then they'll be arse slow.

Also, if you have multiple HDs and want to bother with software RAID, XP Pro can do it. Raid 0 (whatever the stripe one is) a pair of HDs and things will be very fast on that drive, although software raid taxes the CPU a fair bit i believe with IDE drives.

-C

**parksie** · Sep 24th, 2002, 05:54 PM

Be *very* careful with RAID like that. One drive goes and you can lose all your data.

I wouldn't recommend it, it's far too risky.

**DiGiTaIErRoR** · Sep 24th, 2002, 06:49 PM

Windows XP sucks.

**siyan** · Sep 24th, 2002, 07:47 PM

Originally posted by parksie
Be *very* careful with RAID like that. One drive goes and you can lose all your data.

I wouldn't recommend it, it's far too risky.

its okay if its just a swap file...if something goes windows recognizes it and switches to an automatically managed swap on the system drive

-C

**DiGiTaIErRoR** · Sep 25th, 2002, 07:33 AM

You could mirror the RAID array. How's this risky?

**siyan** · Sep 25th, 2002, 03:00 PM

Originally posted by DiGiTaIErRoR
You could mirror the RAID array. How's this risky?

we're talking about software raid with 2 disks, so yes you could mirror it and lose half the write speed for safety, but tahts kidna stupid if its for a swap file....

-C

**parksie** · Sep 25th, 2002, 03:04 PM

Striping and mirroring is possible, giving you the speed and the robustness.

Takes 4 separate disks though *grin*

**DiGiTaIErRoR** · Sep 26th, 2002, 06:20 AM

Why even use raid?

**parksie** · Sep 26th, 2002, 06:23 AM

Robustness (one drive dies, your data's intact). Speed (spreads the physical writings across the disks).

And so on.

Normally you'd use it on a server, though.

**DiGiTaIErRoR** · Sep 26th, 2002, 06:24 AM

That's what I mean, there no real practical purpose for use home users.

**siyan** · Sep 26th, 2002, 07:02 PM

Still, if I could Raid 1+0 a quartet of 60 or 80GB ATA133s I would. Too bad it costs an arseload of money.

-C

**DiGiTaIErRoR** · Sep 26th, 2002, 07:20 PM

Originally posted by siyan
Still, if I could Raid 1+0 a quartet of 60 or 80GB ATA133s I would. Too bad it costs an arseload of money.

-C

Which is why it isn't practical.

**nabeels786** · Sep 27th, 2002, 05:47 AM

I use a program called Diskeeper, I haven't formatted in almost 9 months (XP Pro) and I'm running as fast/good as new. I defrag maybe once or twice a week too.

I found that fixing the page file size helped, I've got it at 300mb. Though I have noticed after booting my RAM is down to about 80 free (of 256), but it frees itself after a while...I need more ram.

**DiGiTaIErRoR** · Sep 27th, 2002, 08:16 AM

Yeah... Win2k.XP set your page file wrong. It gets bigger with more ram, and smaller with less.

I guess they can't program inversely.

**veryjonny** · Sep 27th, 2002, 01:07 PM

nabeels786 : Kindly provide a link for me to download a demo/shareware version to test it.

About the page file and the like I do not understand much, shall I make it 300MB?, I selected the option---system manage--and it shows some 1320 as page file. so is it good to keep a low page file?

**parksie** · Sep 27th, 2002, 01:22 PM

No. The important thing is to keep it fixed.

How much RAM do you have? I have 512mb , so I set my XP pagefile to 512mb fixed.

But I only use Windows for games now

**nabeels786** · Sep 27th, 2002, 05:48 PM

Originally posted by veryjonny
nabeels786 : Kindly provide a link for me to download a demo/shareware version to test it.
About the page file and the like I do not understand much, shall I make it 300MB?, I selected the option---system manage--and it shows some 1320 as page file. so is it good to keep a low page file?

http://www.execsoft.com/diskeeper/diskeeper.asp?ad=go2

run the regular defrag after you install it, then the boot time defrag...and check "defragment the mft", "reduce paging file fragments" and 'directory consolidation", and see if it makes a difference.
good luck

**veryjonny** · Sep 29th, 2002, 05:57 AM

thanks for the link;

Parksie: I have got 256MB Ram, so I guess I shd make my pagefile also 256? I use the machine for games and prg

**parksie** · Sep 29th, 2002, 10:51 AM

Apparently you should have double your RAM...I used 512 for 256 and it worked ok for me

**veryjonny** · Oct 3rd, 2002, 02:56 AM

I have set the RAM some where near 550...hope the performance would improve...Thanks everyone for their replies..and interest

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