The Best PC Speed Up Tool?

T4i

wolfman wrote:

If you're using an NTFS file system, then it's worth considering purchasing a defragger such as O&O Defrag. It's able to defragment the Master File Table, a core part of the NTFS file system. The standard XP defragmenter doesn't defrag this.

Thanks for that, I went out and bought a copy of O&O and run a COMPLETE/NAME, does this defrag the MTF?

Is the COMPLETE/NAME the best one to use?

Joe_Bloggs

I tried 0&0 to defragment an NTFS partition and it failed because the cluster size or whatever were not the bog standard size. I got the same useless capability with the built in defrag tools. NTFS seems to hog too much space for partitions where there a moderate number of large files compared to thousands of miniscule files.

J_B. (No Thanks File System).

wolfman

Nelli wrote:

Truthfully I haven't reinstalled Win XP in about 10 months, I don't spend stupid amounts of time cleaning up my machine, I have it set up the way I like.
By this I mean no unnecessary services running, no files load at startup that hog memory I don't want, no devices are scanned that aren't used.

That can take a long time to do (easily 3-4 hours plus), which is why I mentioned using an imaging program like Acronis TrueImage.

Nelli wrote:

Please don't jump in with a reformat it's really the last resort and wastes a lot of time even from a backup if you then have to restore programs, email, documents.
It's a fix, sure, I feel it's better to prevent the problem up front though.

I agree a format is last resort, but as to using backups I don't. I have Acronis TrueImage, and can restore my machine within minutes. I don't need to worry about setting up any emails, documents etc... as they're all held on a seperate hard drive (always best to keep windows and your work seperate). To apply the latest updates etc... it takes me 20 minutes at most, then I taken a new image.

Just means that I have a safety net should anything go wrong, and when things start to get slow (or messy), I can just load up my last image which is effectively a fresh install but all setup how I like it.

wolfman

T4i wrote:

Thanks for that, I went out and bought a copy of O&O and run a COMPLETE/NAME, does this defrag the MTF?

Is the COMPLETE/NAME the best one to use?

Yeah it will do. Great piece of software, very quick too. Depends on the drive. I usually just use the SPACE method for any storage drives. For my Windows drive I usually do it by LASTACCESS or STEALTH.

STEALTH is handy as you can basically defrag and not really notice it (if your system is beefy enough).

Keeps my drives nicely in check. Not quite as high as Acronis TrueImage in my must have apps, but it's in the top few.

Nelli_2

Wolfman, what of my text quoted are you saying "That can take a long time to do (easily 3-4 hours plus)" ?
I take an image of my C: drive nothing else, no need, once in a blue moon takes 1 DVD to back up and about 10 mins. :T

All my important docs are mailed to my gmail account, my program files are on a seperate partition.

So you see I have pretty much what you have but use Nero to back up the drive...
I suspect you misread/understood my post , you have me puzzled lol !

PS worth mentioning backed up data on a seperate partition is no safe guard if you lose the whole drive

wolfman

Ah sorry, thought you were saying you don't backup. Oh if you do then no worries, does sound like we have a similar setup. Obviously works well for both of us.