# Just Got New External Drive



## Mrcrowley (Apr 23, 2003)

It's formatted for FAT32.

My other is NTFS. Is it best to change new one or does it not matter?

Thanks all.


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## pugster (Nov 22, 2004)

xp can read fat32 ,i take it that its new and you are using it for backup? as ptz says just format it with ntfs ,ntfs is a better file system anyway for todays large drives.


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## Mrcrowley (Apr 23, 2003)

potz said:


> If you need it to be readable by other OSs such as Mac or Linux leave it as it is. If you only need Wintel to be able to read it it is better to re-format it for best performance under Windoze.


Thanks Chris









I got it to clear PC of stuff so hopefully will perform better. Now dont know whether to reinstall Windows so just essentials on PC. What do you think?


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## limey (Aug 24, 2006)

When was the last time you did a reformat? How is the PC running, if you are having 'issues' then a reformat may be worthwhile. You could also consider a re-install.

Take a look here for details on the re-install Langa newsletter this is by Fred Langa, an extremely reputable source. Feel free to sign up for his free newsletter, tis a valuable resource.

Martin

EDIT

Just re-read your post, not sure what you are seeing, but you say "perform better". Is your system stable or do you have program or OS crashes? If you're having crashes, glitches, etc. the re-install may be the way to go. As the article details, you should be able to try this before you go the wipe-out and reload route.

What kind of routing maintenance do you perform?


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## pugster (Nov 22, 2004)

can you post your system specs ? (what processor and how much ram) for better performance you might need better componants.

type 'dxdiag' in the run box (no quotes) for processor and how much memory you have.

as already asked , how long has it been since you last did a format/reinstall?


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## Mrcrowley (Apr 23, 2003)

pugster said:


> can you post your system specs ? (what processor and how much ram) for better performance you might need better componants.
> 
> type 'dxdiag' in the run box (no quotes) for processor and how much memory you have.
> 
> as already asked , how long has it been since you last did a format/reinstall?


Last reinstall about 6 wks ago.

I decided on ext drive to speed it up-and avoid freezing.

Done dxdiag-which page do you need to see? Just the system tab?


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## pugster (Nov 22, 2004)

if the last install was 6 weeks ago and its slow and freezing then there is a problem somewhere else ,yes its the first page when you do dxdiag ,adding an external drive wont speed anything up just give you more space to keep files,putting the page file on the external drive might speed it up a little if you play games etc but nothing you would really notice any other time

there are so many things that could slow a computer down or make it freeze that its virtually impossible to try and explain them all online to someone but we can go thro a few easy ones,heres what you are looking for in dxdiag,its the first and easiest port of call ,if yu have an old 800mhz processor and 128mb of ram it will be slow by default,while you are in dxdiag click on the other tabs and look at the bottom to make sure it says 'no problems found'


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## Mrcrowley (Apr 23, 2003)

pugster said:


> if the last install was 6 weeks ago and its slow and freezing then there is a problem somewhere else ,yes its the first page when you do dxdiag ,adding an external drive wont speed anything up just give you more space to keep files,putting the page file on the external drive might speed it up a little if you play games etc but nothing you would really notice any other time
> 
> there are so many things that could slow a computer down or make it freeze that its virtually impossible to try and explain them all online to someone but we can go thro a few easy ones,heres what you are looking for in dxdiag,its the first and easiest port of call ,if yu have an old 800mhz processor and 128mb of ram it will be slow by default,while you are in dxdiag click on the other tabs and look at the bottom to make sure it says 'no problems found'


ok heres my results










All tests passsed, but got message about sound.


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## pugster (Nov 22, 2004)

> All tests passsed, but got message about sound


comon gimmi a hint









you can speed windows up alot by turning of all the bells and whistles ,right click my computer select properties then advanced,under performance click settings then click 'adjust for best performance' and click apply.

you say the comp has been slow and freezing ? have you looked in admin tools>event viewer>system to see if there have been any problems? if there are any errors they will be red flagged, you can right click on them and select properties ,there is a link in the box that says 'for morre information etc' click on it and let t access the net ,it will take you to the ms page for the corresponding error.

give us the sound error first ,conflicting driver issues can cause all sorts of problems.


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## pugster (Nov 22, 2004)

forgot to add, another good speed up for xp is to turn off the indexing service ,goto start>run type services.msc scroll down to indexing service in the main panel and double click it change the startup type to disabled and click apply then exit.


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## pugster (Nov 22, 2004)

mmm your results didnt load on my screen first time round for some reason, that error is nothing to be worried about it just means the audio doesnt support a certain frequency that dxdiag tests for ,try the above tweeks and see if it speeds up alittle.


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## Mrcrowley (Apr 23, 2003)

Thanks a lot P.

BTW...............

Why you got a lot more page files? What do they do?


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## pugster (Nov 22, 2004)

the page file size corresponds to the amount of ram you have ,ram is by far the fastest memory in your computer so you want to use just that if possible,the page file settings indicate how much to use before the computer pages (buffers) data to the hard drive (which is alot slower) ,i see you have 512mb of memory ,adding another 512mb stick to take it to 1gb would probably give you another good performance increase ,the more ram the better (faster) your comp will be ,you have to balance between what you do tho, i play some games etc so the extra ram helps me alot ,if you are just using the comp to surf the net etc then its not really worth adding more ,heavy graphics applications such as solidworks also use alot of processing power so using more ram (faster) will render things a hell of alot quicker than keep paging it to the drive.


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