Another possibility to increase performance is to use what is known as "shadow RAM". This is a technique where by the standard ROM routines are copied into faster RAM memory. This is an old trick known to DOS game programmers to squeeze that last ounce of speed out of your display. Modern graphics cards will do this as a matter of course (although you may still these settings in DOS PIF settings).
Disk Memory
Windows uses a portion of your hard disk as "memory". The principle is that not all memory will be requires at any one time. Those portions not immediately needed are stored on the hard disk (this is what is known as the "swap file"). As the system requires memory stored on hard disk, the system "pages out" that is, copies memory in RAM to hard disk and loads memory from hard disk into RAM. This swapping of memory from RAM to and from hard disk is why your hard disk clatters away even when you may not be doing anything.
There are a number of things we can do to help Windows make the most of our hard disks and these are listed below.
· Ensure that the hard disk is regularly defragmented using the disk defragmentor program in Accessories.
· Allocate a drive partition for the sole use of the swap file (a disk around 100 MB - 150 MB is ideal)
· Run SCANDISK on a regular basis to ensure that corrupted files are fixed before they become a problem.
· Let Windows set the size of the swap file that it wants (rather than placing a limit on it).
Next week looks at some internals of our system such as PCI buses, SCSI interfaces and peripherals that we add (notably the printer).
