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Ways To Speed WinXP Without Defrag By Carey Holzman, TechBuilder.org |
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To
defrag, or not to defrag? If you're looking for ways to speed WinXP machines used by your customers, then the answer is
Not. Defragmenting, of course, is the process of reorganizing all data
on a hard-disk drive so that each file is arranged into a single
uninterrupted, or contiguous, location on the disk. Many system builders and
technicians have been taught, and still believe, that defragmenting
hard disk drives on a regular basis keeps PCs operating at peak performance.
But that idea is behind the times. While it was true that defragmenting
helped older PCs, it no longer applies. Today we have 7200-RPM (rotations per
minute) hard-disk drives with improved seek and latency times; many also
contain an 8-MB cache buffer. Let's not forget Windows XP's ultra-efficient
NTFS (NT File System). For PCs, servers, and workstations equipped with these
innovations, defragmenting no longer makes much
improvement, if any, to system performance. This is even more of an issue with the new
Serial ATA hard disk drives, which are soon to become the new standards
utilized in the market. Examples of SATA drives include the Seagate Barracuda
line and new 10,000-RPM IDE (Integrated Drive Electronics)
hard-disk drives, such as the Western Digital
Raptor. Still, defragmenting
remains an important task. Why? For one, power consumption and heat can be
directly related to a fragmented hard drive. When the computer's operating
system requests data, if a file is not contiguous, then extra seeking on the
disk may be required. But a more important consideration is disk failure.
Should a hard drive fail, the likelihood of
successfully recovering data from the dead or damaged drive improves
significantly if the data is contiguous rather than randomly scattered about
the drive platters. The software companies that create defragmentation software would like you to believe that
their software does improve system performance. But my own in-house
testing refutes that, as do recent findings from Steve Gibson and other system testers. So What Works? Since defragging the disk won't do much to
improve Windows XP performance, here are 23 suggestions that will. Each can
enhance the performance and reliability of your customers' PCs. Best of all, most of them will cost you nothing. 1.) To decrease a system's boot time and increase system performance, use the money you save by not buying defragmentation software -- the built-in Windows
defragmenter works just fine -- and instead equip the computer with an
Ultra-133 or Serial ATA hard drive with 8-MB cache buffer. 2.) If a PC has less than 512 MB of RAM, add more memory. This is a
relatively inexpensive and easy upgrade that can dramatically improve system
performance. 3.) Ensure that Windows XP is utilizing the NTFS file system. If you're
not sure, here's how to check: First, double-click the My Computer icon,
right-click on the C: Drive, then select Properties. Next, examine the File
System type; if it says FAT32, then back-up any
important data. Next, click Start, click Run, type
CMD, and then click OK. At the prompt, type CONVERT C: /FS:NTFS
and press the Enter key. This process may take a while; it's important that
the computer be uninterrupted and virus-free. The file system used by the
bootable drive will be either FAT32 or NTFS. I highly recommend NTFS for its
superior security, reliability, and efficiency with larger disk drives. 4.) Disable file indexing. The indexing service
extracts information from documents and other files on the hard drive and
creates a "searchable keyword index." As you can imagine, this
process can be quite taxing on any system. The idea is that the user can search for a
word, phrase, or property inside a document, should they have hundreds or
thousands of documents and not know the file name of the document they want.
Windows XP's built-in search functionality can still perform these kinds of
searches without the Indexing service. It just takes longer. The OS has to
open each file at the time of the request to help find what the user is
looking for. Most people never need this feature of
search. Those who do are typically in a large corporate environment where
thousands of documents are located on at least one server. But if you're a
typical system builder, most of your clients are small and medium businesses.
And if your clients have no need for this search feature, I recommend
disabling it. Here's how: First, double-click the My
Computer icon. Next, right-click on the C: Drive, then select Properties.
Uncheck "Allow Indexing Service to index this disk for fast file
searching." Next, apply changes to "C: subfolders and files,"
and click OK. If a warning or error message appears (such as "Access is
denied"), click the Ignore All button. 5.) Update the PC's video and motherboard
chipset drivers. Also, update and configure the BIOS. For more information on
how to configure your BIOS properly, see this article on my site. 6.) Empty the Windows Prefetch folder every
three months or so. Windows XP can "prefetch"
portions of data and applications that are used frequently. This makes
processes appear to load faster when called upon by the user. That's fine.
But over time, the prefetch folder may become
overloaded with references to files and applications no longer in use. When
that happens, Windows XP is wasting time, and slowing system performance, by
pre-loading them. Nothing critical is in this folder, and the entire contents
are safe to delete. 7.) Once a month, run a disk cleanup. Here's how: Double-click the My
Computer icon. Then right-click on the C: drive and select Properties. Click
the Disk Cleanup button -- it's just to the right of the Capacity pie graph
-- and delete all temporary files. 8.) In your Device Manager, double-click on the IDE ATA/ATAPI
Controllers device, and ensure that DMA is enabled for each drive you have
connected to the Primary and Secondary controller. Do this by double-clicking
on Primary IDE Channel. Then click the Advanced Settings tab. Ensure the
Transfer Mode is set to "DMA if available" for both Device 0 and
Device 1. Then repeat this process with the Secondary IDE Channel. 9.) Upgrade the cabling. As hard-drive technology improves, the cabling
requirements to achieve these performance boosts have become more stringent.
Be sure to use 80-wire Ultra-133 cables on all of your IDE devices with the
connectors properly assigned to the matching Master/Slave/Motherboard
sockets. A single device must be at the end of the cable; connecting a single
drive to the middle connector on a ribbon cable will cause signaling
problems. With Ultra DMA hard drives, these signaling problems will prevent
the drive from performing at its maximum potential. Also, because these
cables inherently support "cable select," the location of each
drive on the cable is important. For these reasons, the cable is designed so
drive positioning is explicitly clear. 10.) Remove all spyware from the computer. Use free programs such as AdAware by Lavasoft
or SpyBot Search & Destroy.
Once these programs are installed, be sure to check for and download any
updates before starting your search. Anything either program finds can be
safely removed. Any free software that requires spyware to run will no longer
function once the spyware portion has been removed; if your customer really
wants the program even though it contains spyware, simply reinstall it. For
more information on removing Spyware visit this Web Pro News page.
11.) Remove any unnecessary programs and/or items from Windows Startup
routine using the MSCONFIG utility. Here's how: First, click Start, click
Run, type MSCONFIG, and click OK. Click the StartUp
tab, then uncheck any items you don't want to start
when Windows starts. Unsure what some items are? Visit the WinTasks Process Library.
It contains known system processes, applications, as well as spyware
references and explanations. Or quickly identify them by searching for the
filenames using Google or another Web search engine. 12.) Remove any unnecessary or unused programs from the Add/Remove
Programs section of the Control Panel. 13.) Turn off any and all unnecessary animations, and disable active
desktop. In fact, for optimal performance, turn off all animations. Windows
XP offers many different settings in this area. Here's how to do it: First
click on the System icon in the Control Panel. Next, click on the Advanced
tab. Select the Settings button located under Performance. Feel free to play
around with the options offered here, as nothing you can change will alter
the reliability of the computer %96 only its responsiveness. 14.) If your customer is an advanced user who is comfortable editing
their registry, try some of the performance registry tweaks offered at Tweak XP. 15.) Visit Microsoft's Windows update
site regularly, and download all updates labeled Critical.
Download any optional updates at your discretion. 16.) Update the customer's anti-virus software on a weekly, even daily,
basis. Make sure they have only one anti-virus software package installed.
Mixing anti-virus software is a sure way to spell disaster for performance
and reliability. 17.) Make sure the customer has fewer than 500 type fonts installed on
their computer. The more fonts they have, the slower the system will become.
While Windows XP handles fonts much more efficiently than did the previous
versions of Windows, too many fonts -- that is, anything over 500 -- will
noticeably tax the system. 18.) Do not partition the hard drive. Windows XP's NTFS file
system runs more efficiently on one large partition. The data is no safer on
a separate partition, and a reformat is never necessary to reinstall an
operating system. The same excuses people offer for using partitions apply to
using a folder instead. For example, instead of putting all your data on the
D: drive, put it in a folder called "D drive." You'll achieve the
same organizational benefits that a separate partition offers, but without
the degradation in system performance. Also, your free space won't be limited
by the size of the partition; instead, it will be limited by the size of the
entire hard drive. This means you won't need to resize any partitions, ever.
That task can be time-consuming and also can result in lost data. 19.) Check the system's RAM to ensure it is operating properly. I
recommend using a free program called MemTest86.
The download will make a bootable CD or diskette (your choice), which will
run 10 extensive tests on the PC's memory
automatically after you boot to the disk you created. Allow all tests to run
until at least three passes of the 10 tests are completed. If the program
encounters any errors, turn off and unplug the computer, remove a stick of
memory (assuming you have more than one), and run the test again. Remember,
bad memory cannot be repaired, but only replaced. 20.) If the PC has a CD or DVD recorder, check the drive manufacturer's
Web site for updated firmware. In some cases you'll be able to upgrade the
recorder to a faster speed. Best of all, it's free. 21.) Disable unnecessary services. Windows XP loads a lot of services that
your customer most likely does not need. To determine which services you can
disable for your client, visit the Black Viper site for Windows XP
configurations. 22.) If you're sick of a single Windows Explorer window crashing and then
taking the rest of your OS down with it, then follow this tip: open My
Computer, click on Tools, then Folder Options. Now click on the View tab.
Scroll down to "Launch folder windows in a separate process," and
enable this option. You'll have to reboot your machine for this option to
take effect. 23.) At least once a year, open the computer's cases and blow out all the
dust and debris. While you're in there, check that all the fans are turning
properly. Also inspect the motherboard capacitors for bulging or leaks. For
more information on this leaking-capacitor phenomena,
you can read numerous articles
on my site. Following
any of these suggestions should result in noticeable improvements to the
performance and reliability of your customers' computers. If you still want
to defrag a disk, remember that the main benefit will be to make your data
more retrievable in the event of a crashed drive. |
