Greetings --
-----Original Message-----
From: Roger Myers <[log in to unmask]>

I'm including my opinions between snips


>When my hard disk gets down to about 350 MB of free space it
starts locking up
>grinding a lot more then usual etc.
>It also complains of memory problems and advises me to delete
files.
>It even grinds a lot at 580 MB of free space on the disk.
>My PC runs Windows 95 and has 32 MB of RAM memory.
>Lately though the hard disk grinds all the time even when just
>moving around in Windows on the desktop.


While I'm not exactly sure what you mean by "complains of memory
problems and advises me to delete files", I've most often
experienced the grinding you refer to when I've allowed Windows
to manage virtual memory. [Control Panel -> System ->
Performance -> Virtual Memory] Here and elsewhere I've seen the
'rule of thumb' suggested as "Let me manage virtual memory" being
checked, then setting both the minimum and maximum size the same
at approximately 2.5 X Physical RAM...in your case 80 - 100 MB.
Even more effective is setting this "swap file" at a location on
a partition (or second disk) set aside for this purpose. Windows
then always has a dedicated 80 - 100 MB section of your hard disk
for its exclusive use. Sometimes, the grinding to which you
referred is Windows returning the swap file to its minimum size
after completion of a memory-intensive task.

>I know Windows is slow but it can take 30 seconds just to get
from the
>"My computer" choice on the desktop to the control pannel choice
and this
>is a Pentium 233 MHz PC so that is very slow.
>
>Is it likely a disk problem or a memory problem?
>Could the disk be fragmented?
>If the disk is fragmented then how can I go about defragmenting
it?
>Is there a program to do this in Windows 95 or is there one
>I can purchase?


Yes, this does appear to be a bit slow, and, yes, the disk could
be fragmented, and, yes, there is a program to defragment the
hard disk 'built in' to Win9x. Click the Start button, Programs,
Accessories, System tools, and it should be in that cascading
menu. If you want some idea how fragmented your disk is, click on
Show details when you run it. (If you are familiar with Norton
Utilities Speed disk, I believe M$ bought the right to
incorporate a "stripper" version of this utility as Defrag in
Win95.) While the Norton version may arguably be better than the
Win9x version of this utility, I've had basically good luck with
the defrag included in Win9x.

>
>Would it be better to just get a larger disk and transfer
everything onto it?
>It would be defragmented then. (smile)
>
 Actually, I believe not. If you xcopy the files to the new disk,
I think they will "arrive" as fragmented as they began.  But, of
course, as we all know, no matter how large your disk, you'll
always find a way to fill it. (You can go ahead and ship me all
those tiny 1 GB drives you'll be discarding, if you
like...<grin>.)

I defrag every day, however; at least once a week should be
considered a good habit to get into.

HTH,

Paul A. Shippert               Library/Media Specialist
"   . . . and I'm hovering like a fly
   waiting for the windshield on the freeway."  Genesis
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