08 | Tip Eight: This is the Best tip of all: Divide your hard-drive into Partitions.
(Read entire tip before you go to work to understand the power of partitions and the logics behind it.)
This is my most useful tip. And you'll notice an extreme performance boost which will always remain. Your pc will barely slow down over the years if it's done properly. Sounds pretty cool doesn't it?
This action is very drastic and you must have a backup. You should be in a state where you can say "if my computer crashes now, it wouldn't be so bad." (right after or before a format for example) because you're about to divide your hard-drive. And if anything goes wrong (corrupted sector/file/power failure/pc freezes/...) you can lose everything. Here on my pc I’ve never encountered any problems, but every computer is different. You can't say i haven’t warned you enough.
What are partitions? Well, if you buy a new hard drive, it is divided into 1 partition: C:\ . This partition is the size of the entire hard drive (Lets say 200 GB) and probably you'll install windows XP on this partition. But if you use this partition several months/years it gets fragmented, has software installed all over the drive, takes much longer to search files, has remainings of uninstalled software all over the place, temporary internet/windows files everywhere, has windows system files all over the drive (makes windows work slower) and it will not function anymore if there is an error in windows and you have to format (you'll lose all data immediately if you can't get into the drive/partition anymore trough your or maybe even another pc)
What can you do about it? It's actually very simple; you can divide your hard drive into several partitions. The initial partition of 200 GB can be resized to 15 GB and the 185 Free Gigabyte can be used independently. Here's how I recommend you to divide the free space.
So you now have a hard drive which looks like this:
-[ [C:\ 15 GB ] [ EMPTY 185 GB ] ]-
Of course, you have your Windows XP installed on your C:\ partition. But now it's up to you. you'll have to decide what to do with the 185 GB of free space. You can create a partition for your Music/documents/movies, or for your Software/Games or for your Tempfiles or you can create all 3 or as many or as few as you like. Everybody has different Needs. Let's say you decide how to divide 180 GB yourself (we'll get back to that) but I recommend you create a 5 GB Partition for tempfiles. This is very necessary. You can create a partition (T:\ for example, can be any letter) where you store:
· c:\windows\temp
This location can be changed like this: Control Panel --> System --> tab "advanced" --> at the bottom "variables".
· Temporary internet files
This location can be changed like this: Control Panel --> Internet options --> settings for temporary files --> move folder.
you should also reduce the size of this folder to 150MB or so.
· Winrar/Winzip Temp folder
This location can be changed in the options of the software.
· P2P Temp/Part files (Like eMule, Shareaza, Bittorrents..)
This location can be changed in the options of the software.
· Adobe Photoshop, illustrator, inDesign Swapfiles
This location can be changed in the options of the software.
· Nero Tempfiles
This location can be changed in the options of the software.
· Software you'd like to try before installing it.
Just install the software to T:\SoftwareTry\program\ or something like that.
· Downloaded files you have to test before you store them into permanent folders.
Just download the files to T:\Downloads
Shortly; Every file that just temporary visits your computer, or every file of which you are not sure if you are going to keep it.
I recommend this list's locations should change to (just suggestions):
Every piece of software that creates tempfiles probably has an option somewhere to change this location.
· c:\windows\temp ---> T:\Temp\
· Temporary internet files ---> T:\Temporary internet files\
· Winrar/Winzip Temp folder ---> T:\Temp\
· P2P Temp/Part files (Like eMule, Shareaza, Bittorrents..) ---> T:\Downloads\PartFiles\
· Adobe Photoshop, illustrator, inDesign Swapfiles ---> T:\Temp
· Nero Tempfiles ---> T:\Temp
· Software you'd like to try before installing it. ---> T:\SoftwareTry
· Downloaded files you have to test. ---> T:\Downloads\
This way you keep your windows-partition (C:\) clean. It will not get full of temporary files which cause fragmentation and chaos over your harddrive. This will give you quite a boost because all chaos is concentrated in one partition and software like CrapCleaner cleans this partition automatic for you.
So now your Hard Drive looks like this (in theory)
-[ [C:\ 15 GB ] [ T:\ 5 GB ] [ EMPTY 180 GB ] ]-
So You have 15 GB to install Windows XP, Office, Photoshop, drivers and other software you really use daily and are un-missable (permanent). Maybe a game or 2 you play for years and are really devoted to.
Now it's up to you. Will you create an 180 GB-large new partition for Files and Music and Video's and (new) Games you play only a month or 2 and software you don't use often or regularly have to update?
Or will you create a partition for software and games AND another partition for your music and files and video's?
This is up to you. Anyway you choose, your PC will remain as fast because the windows XP partition (c:\) Remains untouched!
So in short your drive will look like this --->
· C:\ = Windows XP + Office + Software you often need and is essential (codecs, all time favorite games, multimedia players,...)
· T:\ = Temporary files (as discussed above)
· G:\ = Games and other software you don't really need that often
· F:\ = Files, video's, music, downloads....
-[ [C:\ 15 GB ] [T:\ 5 GB ] [ G:\ 30 GB ] [ F:\ 150 GB ] ]-
Your C:\ drive will remain clean and as fast as day one (or maybe even faster if you defragment often) And no mather how full your hard drive gets, your pc will remain healthy and fast!
Another advantage is; When your windows gets an error of some sort and you can't resolve the problem, You can just Format the C:\ Drive, reinstall windows XP and the other partitions remain untouched, you'll keep your Files stored on the T:\, G:\ and F:\ partitions.
Of course these values are all fictional considering every hard drive has a different size. You should make up the sizes for yourself. Think what you need more, Files or games or software...? you're completely free to divide your hard drive into the partitions you need. (if you need a partition "work"...Be my guest. The story above is fictional, I do it like that, this doesn't mean you have to.)
Free Software/Links:
· Start --> run ---> diskmgmt.msc (this is not really recommended because you always have to format, you'll always loose your data if you want to create partitions. Partition Magic can do all this with a very nice and helpful wizard)
· Partition Magic 8: This is not free, but I recommend this piece of software Highly! It just works perfectly. Never encountered a problem on over 5 pc's now. It works like a charm and is very easy to use. You can create, edit, resize, rename, delete partitions, you can change their file system (NTFS recommended, Fat32 is good for Linux)
Blijkbaar had PM die automatisch gerenamed naar E