On  6 Feb 98 at 16:41, Arif Ullah wrote:

> I have a Compaq Presario 742 with 486DX4 90MHz, 16MB RAM, 421MB HD which I
> had to compress (using Drive Space3, Total compressed size 812MB) for extra
> disk space. I have Win95a running. Most of the HD is filled up and I often
> install and remove large games and programs. I wanted to add a second HD
> but that requires some Compaq only spare parts which isn't available in my
> country. I am planning to buy a pentium computer in the near future but in
> the mean while I have to get by on this machine.
>
> My problem is whenever I start any program the HD keeps on spinning like
> crazy and running multiple programs makes it worse. It's like all the time
> I am actively using the computer, the HD is also almost constantly
> reading/writing. This makes all the programs run really slow and sometimes
> messes up the games. I use Norton Speed Disk to defrag regularly. But
> almost every other week the swap files gets very fragmented. I suspect that
> is the cause of my problems. Is it happening because of the compressed
> disk? If I set a minimum value and a maximum value of about 30 or 40 MB in
> Windows control panel, will that solve my problem?

  That will help in two basic ways:

1.  Windows will be working less hard to grow/shrink the swap file.

2.  Any fragmentation of the swap file should be temporary, and will
go away when you close a few applications.

> I was wondering, if I partition a small part of my HD (i.e. 40 to 60 MB)
> and assign it for the swap file would that speed things up for me?

  That depends.  On the one hand, it can further minimise
fragmentation.  On the other hand, it can mean more head travel --
and so more delay reading from the disk.  This trick works best, I
think, if you can put the swap partition on a drive that you don't
use much, rather than on your primary drive.

> If the answer is 'yes' then I have the following questions:
>
>   1) Ideally how big should the partition be? (Keeping in mind RAM
> and Small HD)Is there any software or formula to calculate the
> necessary maximum range?

  There are two basic maximums:  same as minimum (use only
pre-allocated swap file), or none (expand beyond minimum as needed).

  I've heard various formulae for calculating the minimum from your
RAM size, typically 1.5x-3x.  That's not a good direct basis, but it
gets you a reasonable starting number.
  A better idea is to run the Win95 "System Monitor" (SYSMON.EXE),
and have it display "Memory Manager: Swapfile in use" as you load up
typical applications.  Find the maximum that reaches, and add a
margin.
  Where that feeds back into the formulas is this:  If you're winding
up with a minimum more than about twice your installed RAM, your
system performance is likely to benefit from installation of more
RAM.  If you're running more than a couple of simultaneous apps in
16MB, you should probably consider this while prices are still fairly
reasonable.
  DriveSPace compression/decompression uses both memory and CPU, and
these are resources in short supply on your system.  If your BIOS
supports LBA, you could probably improve things considerably by
spending about $150 for a 2GB drive and discontinuing DriveSpace.

>   2) Do I have to uncompress the drive before I can partition the
> hard disk? Can I use 'Partition Magic' to partition the compressed
> drive?

  Partition Magic doesn't know about compressed drives; it deals with
the underlying partitions.  [You may have "Hide Host Drive" enabled.]
  What you could do (and this is assuming you ignore my advice above
about putting such a partition on a second drive...) is:

    1.  Use DriveSpace to shrink the compressed volume.  The entire
compressed volume shows up as used space on the host drive, so this
frees up some unused space.
    2.  Use Partition Magic to shrink the host partition, making some
of the free space available for another partition.
    3.  Use Partition Magic or FDISK to create a second (extended)
partition, and create a volume in it.
    4.  Format the new volume.
    5.  Tell Win95 to use the new volume to hold the swap file.
    6.  If step 2 left some unused space within the host drive
partition, you can expand the compressed volume to take advantage of
it.

>   3) After partitioning, how do I assign the swap file to the new
> partition? Do I have to reinstall Win95?

  No, you can change your swap file configuration from the "System"
item in the Control Panel, under the Performance tab and following
the "Virtual Memory" button.

> BTW, I have IE4.0 installed. Should I uninstall it?

  I know of no reason to uninstall it that relates to your concerns
about swap space or DriveSpace.

David G


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