Go Faster Stripes
This week's article looks at ways of making your PC run more efficiently. This article covers the following topics.
Defragmenting your hard disk
Setting up a TEMP directory
Clearing out your browser's cache
All of these steps will help make your system leaner and meaner!
Defragmenting your hard disk
When your computer saves data to your hard disk, space is used up. With the constant creation and deletion of files, "holes" appear. These holes are space on your hard disk that the system will use when saving data.
When saving, the computer may use these holes and it will put parts of a file all over the hard disk. If, for example, a 1MB file has to be saved, it is quite likely that the computer will use 100KB here and 100KB there, using up available space. The result is that the file is scattered (or fragmented).
To understand this concept, imagine reading a book, but instead of having all the pages in the book, imagine that each page is scattered around your house. Now try to read it. Once you finish one page, instead of turning the page over, you have to hunt around your house for the next page before you can continue. This is fragmentation.
Defragging tells the computer to "collect all the pages of the book and put them back as one continuous book." For a computer, this means making sure all the files are in one continuous section of disk. The result is that files load much quicker as the computer no longer has to search around the hard disk to get the file.
The disk defragger program within Windows 95 is contained in the Accessories, System Tools menu. It is best to do this after you delete any unwanted files. Note, if you are running Windows 3.# you will need to run a disk defragmentor outside of windows. You cannot defragment your hard disk while Windows is running.
Setting up a TEMP directory
When Windows is running programs, it will be creating temporary files. Just as you or I might use a scrap of paper to do a calculation, the computer uses temporary files. In theory, when a program has finished running, it should delete its temporary files. Most do, but not all and certainly not if the system or program crashes. The result is having all these temporary files littering your hard disk.
Try it. Search your system for files ending in .TMP. See how many you have and see what dates they were created! All these files are wasting precious disk space! You might like to get rid of these files, but note the following:
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