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The hard drive is usually the biggest speed bump in a PC.

Giving the CPU lots of ram so it doesn't have to use the HD so much is a good start.

256 megs of ram just won't get it.....512 is much better and 1 gig is GREAT!

Then increasing the overall efficiency of the HD by keeping it clean and defragged is the next step.

By clean, I mean remove every file off of the HD that you don't need.

I'm somewhat of a neat-freak so I wrote me a batch file to delete the junk from every temp and cache folder on the HD and I run my batch file from the startup folder so I get a free cleanup every time I reboot my PC.

I share this technique with all my customers so their PC's just never get 'loaded' with garbage.

Most people hate to do maintenance on their computers so this technique keeps their PC's clean with NO user intervention required.

Then there's a more High-Tech answer to HD speed. :rolleyes:

Install a SATA controller card in an open PCI slot and an IDE to SATA dongle on the back of your IDE drive.

Connect the SATA drive cable from the Dongle to the SATA controller card and you'll have an IDE drive running at SATA speeds. I've done it on several PC's and it WORKS fantastic.

Total cost for the setup is about $50. Cheaper than a new SATA drive.

Good Luck,

Andromeda43

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I'm somewhat of a neat-freak so I wrote me a batch file to delete the junk from every temp and cache folder on the HD and I run my batch file from the startup folder so I get a free cleanup every time I reboot my PC.

Could you post the batch file? I looked on your site but none of the filenames I saw looked like they would be it.

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Well I have My Webpage where the batch file is located.

It's called XPCleanup.

It also requires "Deltree.exe" , a DOS program not included with windows XP.

It's also on the site for easy download.

Since it's a DOS batch file, you can read it or edit it with Wordpad.

You can delete any lines that remove stuff you want to keep, or add

lines for additional things you want to delete.

I recently found that my Call-Wave program was caching every message I receive. (for the past two years)

They were .wav files and taking up a LOT of space.....so I added that cache folder to my batch file.

Then I have this space that I rent from another guy where I put some Utilities, etc. that users can download.

Maybe that's where you were looking. :}

Take a look at my web site again. OK?

I hope this helps.

Andromeda43 B)

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The hard drive is usually the biggest speed bump in a PC

I wanted to make sure the n00bs saw this :P I had an ancient IBM 600E that was dog-slow. The original specs were nothing to be impressed by: P2/333, 96mb of ram, 6gb hard drive, PCMCIA 3Com nic, etc.

I bumped the processor up to a P3/800, installed 512mb of ram and a 20gb harddrive and it was still dog slow. It occurred to me that both drives were 4200 RPM cheap models, so I bit the bullet and bought a 7200RPM IBM drive for a hefty chunk of change.

That single harddrive upgrade made my laptop go from near-unbearable to almost as fast as my P4/3.6ghz + RAID0 250gb drives + 1gb of ram. Well, at least when talking about booting Windows and doing simple Office apps and internet surfing.

Hard drives are, without a doubt and BY FAR the slowest component in your computer. Defragging and cleanup will always help, but sometimes you just need phsyically faster hardware to make it better.

If you've got the cash, a 10K RPM Sata drive or even a 15K RPM SCSI drive is the best way to go. If you don't, a pair of 7200RPM drives in RAID 0 will certainly do well too and might be cheaper.

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Upgrade to the Raptors. For maximum performance, you can't beat 2x150GB Raptors in RAID0. Additional drives don't really add much performance. If you have a lot of money to burn, you can always get solid-state storage :D.

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I install lots of PC's for people and I do a Computer Tuneup Procedure on older PC's.

In almost every instance, changing any piece of hardware is just NOT possible.

What I do to gain system performance has to be done from the keyboard.

In the case of any new PC, I can get at least a 100% increase in performance, by implementing my tune-up procedure.

It requires massive cleaning of the hard drive of every unneeded file. (then Defrag)

Tweaking the registry to get the Kernal up off of the HD and loaded into RAM makes a huge difference.

Eliminating useless TSR's and Services also greatly improves system performance.

Everything going into our coming out of the hard drive has to be handled by the CPU.....if it's overloaded with services and TSR's running in the background and demanding attention, then the poor HD just has to wait its turn. Sort of like standing in line at the grocery store.

I hate to post registry tweaks here, because I know that many readers are just NOT qualified to edit their registry and I don't want to get someone into trouble.

If you're registry-tweaking qualified and want to take a look at the ones I use.....look Here.

In a laptop, changing the hard drive isn't nearly as simple as doing it in a tower.

And the one thing that will increase HD performance the most, changing to a SATA drive, can't even be done at all. But remember too....that going from a slow HD in a laptop to a 7200rpm drive, will generate at least twice as much heat, which the laptop may not be able to handle.

Setting power management to shut down the HD in a laptop after a short time of inactivity, like five to ten minutes, will help keep down the heating problem.

Even on a large tower, I never install a new HD without its own cooler. The newer drives just get TOO HOT!

And, the faster they run, the hotter they get.

I have two HD's. One is a 160gig SATA drive and the other is a 60 gig IDE drive. (Both Maxtor)

Both have their own Cooler and stay at room temperature, even under the hardest work loads.

I developed my current method of drive cooling after loosing four IBM Deathstar drives in one year....to HEAT. The last one, died while I was on the internet. When I reached in to remove it, it burned my hand.

If you can't lay a finger on your drive, while it's running, without saying "Ouch!"....its too darn'd hot.

Sorry, I didn't mean for this post to run so long. :whistle:

Good Luck,

Andromeda43 B)

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In almost every instance, changing any piece of hardware is just NOT possible.

I think i lost you on that one. What do you mean?

I hate to post registry tweaks here, because I know that many readers are just NOT qualified to edit their registry and I don't want to get someone into trouble.
i think you'll find that the majority of people populating this board are very capable and quite a few are extremely knowledgeable.
If you're registry-tweaking qualified and want to take a look at the ones I use.....look Here.

Word of caution when enabling fast shutdown: Some applications need additional time to write to the disk upon shutdown (foobar2000 is one of them, POPTray is another) and setting too low of a time limit can screw things up pretty good actually :) I think just about all of your reg tweaks, and many more, are available in nLite. If you do a lot of unattended installs and you haven't checked this out yet, it may interest you. Read the license though.

Even on a large tower, I never install a new HD without its own cooler. The newer drives just get TOO HOT!

And, the faster they run, the hotter they get.

Sounds like good advise to me. I happen to run 4 drives, each pair in a RAID 0 array, and my drive bays came with plastic inserts that you can use to snap a fan in.

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