98se slow since creating dual boot syatem

[Arrow]

I have a single HD with 98se on it

I then used partition magic to reduce this partition and create another for Xp to run on.

There's plenty of spare space left on each partition, however since doing this xp runs

exactly as it should do, but 98se has slowed down a bit, mainly noticeable at boot up or restart and also when opening explorer windows coincidental to running "hungry" software.

I don't see any changed settings and there is nothing malfunctioning except for the slight slowdown.

The 98se came on a vendor restore cd [ghost image] for this pc which I bought in 2002, complete with office and a few other 3rd party softs and worked very well with unoffical service pack until now.

I've defragged and run various drive tests and HD is fine

Pentium 3 512mb ram 1ghz cpu

Edited March 16, 2007 by Arrow

[RainyShadow]

Just a guess - if partition magic has decreased the cluster size while resizing, this should lead to doubled or bigger FAT size and higher file system processing overhead.

Also, defragmenting sometimes leads to slower application loading if the DLLs, data files, etc. for this application get physicaly separated (i.e. the EXE at the disk begining, one DLL at the middle, other DLL at the end of the drive, etc.)

[Arrow]

Thanks RainyShadow, I don't know, surely if cluster size were that big an issue partition magic users would routinely come up against this problem and it would nullify the point of the software.

I defragged after I noticed it ran slower in an attempt to speed things up so I don't think its that.

Edited March 17, 2007 by Arrow

[soporific]

Pentium 3 512mb ram 1ghz cpu

This sort of problem requires more info about your system me thinks ...

1) what file systems have you got installed? We could assume you have FAT32 for Win98 and NTFS for WinXP but that could be wrong and won't be helpful in diagnosis ...

2) IF WinXP has NTFS then i'm already out of ideas because Win98 shouldn't even recognise the drive partition and therefore have absolutely NO relationship with the WinXP installation.

3) but if you have FAT32 or FAT for WinXP then at least its possible that something could be interfering ...

4) also, what are your drives configured as? I'm not sure how this could be the problem, but hey - we'll see when you tell us!

[Arrow]

Maybe you are onto something, I do have Fat32 on xp !

By drive configuration do you mean this?

I'm on 98se at the moment and this is the current partition info from partition magic

Volume PartType Status Size MB PartSect # StartSect TotalSects

*:XP Hid.FAT32X Pri 13,252.1 0 0 63 27,140,337

C:98SE FAT32X Pri,Boot 25,950.6 0 1 27,140,463 53,146,737

Boot record

Boot Record for drive *: (Drive: 1, Starting sector: 63, Type: FAT32)

====================================================================================================

=======

1. Jump: EB 58 90

2. OEM Name: MSWIN4.1

3. Bytes per Sector: 512

4. Sectors per Cluster: 32

5. Reserved Sectors: 32

6. Number of FAT's: 2

7. Reserved: 0x0000

8. Reserved: 0x0000

9. Media Descriptor: 0xF8

10. Sectors per FAT: 0

11. Sectors per Track: 63 (0x3F)

12. Number of Heads: 240 (0xF0)

13. Hidden Sectors: 63 (0x3F)

14. Big Total Sectors: 27140337 (0x19E20F1)

15. Big Sectors per FAT: 6636

16. Extended Flags: 0x0000

17. FS Version: 0

18. First Cluster of Root: 220 (0xDC)

19. FS Info Sector: 1

20. Backup Boot Sector: 6

21. Reserved: 000000000000000000000000

22. Drive ID: 0x80

23. Reserved for NT: 0x00

24. Extended Boot Sig: 0x29

25. Serial Number: 0x45CADE5F

26. Volume Name: XP

27. File System Type: FAT32

28. Boot Signature: 0xAA55

====================================================================================================

=======

Boot Record for drive C: (Drive: 1, Starting sector: 27,140,463, Type: FAT32)

====================================================================================================

=======

1. Jump: EB 58 90

2. OEM Name: MSWIN4.1

3. Bytes per Sector: 512

4. Sectors per Cluster: 32

5. Reserved Sectors: 32

6. Number of FAT's: 2

7. Reserved: 0x0000

8. Reserved: 0x0000

9. Media Descriptor: 0xF8

10. Sectors per FAT: 0

11. Sectors per Track: 63 (0x3F)

12. Number of Heads: 240 (0xF0)

13. Hidden Sectors: 27140463 (0x19E216F)

14. Big Total Sectors: 53146737 (0x32AF471)

15. Big Sectors per FAT: 12984

16. Extended Flags: 0x0000

17. FS Version: 0

18. First Cluster of Root: 415 (0x19F)

19. FS Info Sector: 1

20. Backup Boot Sector: 6

21. Reserved: 000000000000000000000000

22. Drive ID: 0x80

23. Reserved for NT: 0x00

24. Extended Boot Sig: 0x29

25. Serial Number: 0x3B934437

26. Volume Name: 98SE

27. File System Type: FAT32

28. Boot Signature: 0xAA55

Edited March 23, 2007 by Arrow

[RainyShadow]

Not that it should affect your problem, but you've placed your FAT partition waaay to far from the begining of the drive. Expect problems with older software.

I, as a rule, always place my DOS/Win9x partitions as close to the begining as possible. Maybe it's just a habbit from the days when 1024th cylinder/etc. boundaries caused major problems, but i preffer to be on the safe side than wondering why something doesn't work when it should.

[edit] now that i think some more on this, the partition placing might be exactly what causes your slowdowns as the ending tracks on the drive should have much longer access time than the begining.

So, if you have the time to test it, move your FAT partition to the begining of the drive.

Beware that messing with the drive might break the XP boot, but (if that happens at all) it's easily repairable by booting from an XP install CD and using the recovery console to fix the boot loader.

Edited March 23, 2007 by RainyShadow

[Arrow]

Thanks very much for that, but you are talking to a complete partition novice here

I haven't a clue about where on the drive the partitions are placed lol

I fired up partition magic and that's what came out.

So............how do I move the FAT partition to the beginning of the drive please?

[RainyShadow]

Well, first select to resize the XP partition. Change the values so that the first number (Free space before partition) is just a bit larger than your Win98 partition size. Then click "OK".

Now right-click on the 98 partition and "Copy" it to the begining of the drive.

Then PMagic should show two FAT partitions surrounding the XP one. Right-click on the first one and find the option to mark it as "Active".

You can "Apply" the changes now. It may take some time, enjoy a cup of coffee

Delete the original 98 partition (the one at the bottom).

Resize the XP partition to use all available free space.

You may also "Hide" the original 98 partition instead of deleting it, until you're sure that the new copy boots fine.

If you use the XP boot loader, it may need some reconfiguration. Open the BOOT.INI file in the root folder of the drive and on each line change the number after "partition" according to your new settings.

HTH

Edited March 24, 2007 by RainyShadow

[soporific]

So............how do I move the FAT partition to the beginning of the drive please?

First, just be careful using Partition Magic --- sometimes it doesn't flag operations that you SHOULDN'T be doing --- merging or resizing partitions full of data is a good example. If you have a full drive, DO NOT PROCEED. I would use 50% free space as a rough guide even before considering whether to proceed. If you need to move a partition, where its located is what determines how much temporary free space you need to complete the operation properly. This is what partition magic (PM) WILL NOT TELL YOU. ie if its theoretically impossible for you to successfully 'move' a partition with the drives in the state they are in, PM can't determine this. You would think they would, hey.

Second, your best bet is to convert the WinXP FAT partiton to NTFS ... this operation can be done in PM. Then when you reboot into Window 98, any delays you can rule out as being caused by our suspicions about the FAT file system. This is a safe operation as far as i know. FAT or FAT32 to NTFS is very easy from a technical point of view.

If you want to share files between the two OSes, just create some space on FAT partition, share it, and then map the Network drive so it's an easy to access drive letter (do this within both OSes).

Easy.

Edited March 24, 2007 by soporific

[Arrow]

Thankyou both for your advice.

I had already proceeded before reading your warnings Soporific however by chance I did have around half the drive free. I had backed up my data on 98se and then deleted it from the partition before moving/copying it to speed the process up.

98se now is working faster again but I simply seem to have swapped the problem over because xp is now running slower.

I have converted it to ntfs with the same slower result.

Edited March 25, 2007 by Arrow

[RainyShadow]

Another thing you could do to speed things up is to create a third partition for storing large files like movies, etc. Place it at the end of the drive.

As such files are usually sequentially readed, they don't need such small access times as the smaller files need.

Besides, it's always nice to have a separate data partition

[Ponch]

I simply seem to have swapped the problem over because xp is now running slower.

You asked for help, not for a miracle.

The smaller your 98 partition, the faster XP will be. But maybe you already spent more time on it that you'll ever get back doing the change.

[Arrow]

I like the idea of a data partition Rainyshadow, but I don't have any particularly large files on this pc, mainly lots of smaller ones I like fast access to.

I'm not going to significantly reduce the 98se partition size Ponch therefore I doubt the gains to xp would be that much, This is primarily my 98se pc, so guess I'll have to put up xp being slow if there is no other solution.

Edited March 25, 2007 by Arrow

[RainyShadow]

Well, if you stick with NTFS on the XP, compressing some folders might help a bit, but it might slow down things too. Try it and see what happens.

To compress a folder or file , open its properties, click on the Advanced button and check the compression box. When closing the dialog, it'll ask if you want to compress the folder contents too, select yes and it's done. If the window seems hung, just wait until it finishes compressing.

btw. if you create a large third partition at the end of the drive, this will avoid eventually placing system files there (because they're limited to the middle partition which is the XP one) and prevent future slowdowns due to it.

[Arrow]

As a safety precaution whilst still messing about with PM I did retain the original 98se system files on a hidden but reduced 3rd partition [approx 5gb]

I was going to delete it, but I guess it would do no harm to leave it there then?

Xp now has around 14gb and the new first 98se partition has approx 20gb

I'll play around with xp file compression and see if it helps

Thankyou!