(OT) XP trials and tribulations

[Grandpa Kim]

Got some bothersome probs with my computer. I have hard drive partitioned with XP and Partition Magic on the "C" drive... and nothing else! It quite small at 7.9 GB.

So, why, from day one, does it need defraging every two weeks? I set Norton's to warn me a 20% fragmentation and that warning occurs with dreary regularity. I am sick of it; does anyone have any ideas.

Then, just yesterday, it warns me the disk is almost full! Again Norton's is set to warn me at 90% capacity. I deleted the obvious stuff and checked every folder, but not being a computer geek, I can't tell what shouldn't or doesn't need to be there. Any ideas why my C drive is growing?

[Instar]

Hmm, I dunno. How often do you install things? Do you have lots of shipsets?
Being a small HD I would think makes it frag faster if you install and uninstall lots of things.

[Grandpa Kim]

Instar said:
Hmm, I dunno. How often do you install things? Do you have lots of shipsets?
Being a small HD I would think makes it frag faster if you install and uninstall lots of things.

I don't install much of anything. I have what I want and frankly can't remember that Last time I installed anything. Well, except for shipsets. But I only install those when I need them, ie: whenever I start a new game. Remember, though, all that is on another drive!

Yes, it occurred to me a small drive would frag up quicker than a large one but this one is essentially unused (unmodified since I set it up the way I like) and every couple weeks is far in excess of anything I've needed to do with other OS's.

Thanks, Instar, any other ideas?

[Fyron]

Is the virtual memory swap file on that drive? How about temporary folders for Windows and for IE? Such locations get fragmented rather quickly...

[Instar]

Imperator Fyron said:
Is the virtual memory swap file on that drive? How about temporary folders for Windows and for IE? Such locations get fragmented rather quickly...

Fyron beat me to it.
In Internet Explorer, go to Tools -> Internet Options. On the "General" tab, click the Delete Files button to clear the downloaded items in the Cache.

[Electrum]

you could be accumulating restore point files. Go to disk cleanup (accessories/system tools) & go to the "More" tab. you can eliminate all but the most recent.

[Gandalph]

The temp directories XP uses can be moved by going to the performance options of My Computer properties. There are 4 settings for temp files and you can change all of them to a different folder on a different hard drive. I would also recommend setting your swap file (virtual memory) to a small static on your C drive and a large static on your other drive.

[Grandpa Kim]

Thanks guys, I think that's got it licked. I'll be back if I need more help.

And really guys, thanks a bunch. This is a great forum!