Optimising Performance ME / '98
Thursday, February 27, 2003 at 2:32 am
Windows Me Annoyances Discussion Forum
Posted by Mac
(2831 messages posted)
If you have a large hard disk-drive (e.g. this is a 60Gb drive) then partitioning
the disk has a number of advantages. 1.0GHz 256Mb SDRAM
This is an OEM installed computer and the OEM will tell you that their recovery program
will not only remove all data but will also remove any set partitions. NOT entirely
true, as data WILL be removed on the C: drive but not on other drives, D: , etc.
and set partitions!
To partition the disk successfully you need to use a Windows Start-Up diskette (bootdisk)
or Packard Bell's "recovery" diskette with both Fdisk and Format on the diskette.
Take all of your data off the machine, files, favourites, email, address books, music,
images and data and burn them all onto CD-RW backups.
Start the computer up on the bootdisk and get to the A:\> prompt by choosing "minimum
boot" here type: A:\>format C: , and press enter to clear the old disk configuration
of all data.
When complete type: A:\>fdisk and press enter to get to the fdisk partitioning program
where you will see a choice of things to do. Choose to delete primary drive C: which
is set to use 100% of the available disk space. Ignore the warning about losing data
and hit enter. Now press escape to return you to the first menu.
Here you choose to set the ... PRIMARY ... DOS drive and press enter. Fdisk will
now check the entire drive space and then ask you to allocate the required size either
in Megabytes or as a percentage. I chose 10% (approx 6.0Gb) to run ME and Office
2000
plus RealOnePlayer, NAV/NIS, a Power DVD and about 30 other software applications.
With the 10% primary drive C:\ allocated, you can now press Esc to return to the
first menu where you should choose (2) to set drive C:\ as the active drive "A" .
If not sure if the program set drive C:\ as the active drive, chose (4) to see the
size of the set drive and if it is set active "A" then press Esc to return to the
main menu. (Add your volume label when prompted to do so and make a note of it somewhere
safe. I used IXTREME1 which is the P-B model name.)
Now choose (3) to set an ... EXTENDED ... DOS partition as drive D:\ . Fdisk will
again check the disk and then ask you to set the size. Whatever remains is 90% of
the disk space, so do not alter it and press enter. I used the volume label IXTREME2
for the D:\ drive.
You have now partitioned your disk into two drives C: = 10% & D: = 90% (Or 20%/80%)
The next stage is to FORMAT so you need to press Esc to get to the DOS prompt and
from the A:\> prompt type: A:\>format C: and press enter. When finished and the file
allocation table is set you need to format drive D:\ so type: A:\>format D: and press
enter.
When both partitions (drives) are formatted you can re-install on drive C:\.
If you have a recovery diskette you CAN use it and with the Packard-Bell OEM system
choose a minimum install with ME and "Smart Restore" only before adding updated Anti-Virus
and software. Run scandisk and defrag after installing.
With everything installed and running smoothly you can now keep all of your documents,
music, images and videos on the D:\ drive but before you do consider setting your
swap-file as a permanent swap-file ( I use a 1000Mb swap-file) by setting the virtual
memory in "system", in the control panel, to the same settings for Max and Min size
choosing to stop Windows from managing it and ALSO choosing the D:\ drive to set
the swap-file to. You can then use a program (such as VoptXP from www.goldenbow.com)
to set the permanent swap-file to the front of the D:\ drive so that all other data
can be stored AFTER it and so that it can all be defragmented more easily.
Now that your C:\ drive is clear of documents, music, images and video it will run
better and faster and if you ever need to do a further re-install of your operating
system you will only have to back-up your email.
Paths to documents in Word, etc. will need to be changed and programs such as Windows
Media Player or RealOnePlayer will scan all drives for media, picking up all of YOUR
material from the D:\ drive. Again paths for saving material to the D:\ drive will
need to be changed.
I can now run with 99% free system resources at start-up and by using the AlwaysUnloadDll
registry setting (a default setting with '98se) the entire system runs much better.
(So far that is!) AlwaysUnloadDll 9x/ME
IML.
NOTE: Find-Fast and the Active desktop are big users of resources. Fast-Find can
cause stalling for several seconds.
You can disable fast find in the control panel using exit and stop after deleting
all of the indexes.
Uninstall PCHealth, System Restore, Windows Help, msinfo32.exe, etc. Start, Run &
type: rundll.exe setupx.dll,InstallHinfSection Uninstall 132 C:\WINDOWS\INF\PCHealth.inf
NB: You will have to re-install Windows if you want to use any of these features
again.
Up-Date site for ALL system-critical and security up-dates: Windows Update
How to Troubleshoot Windows Internal Stack Overflow Error Messages (Q145799)
Error Message: There Are No Spare Stack Pages (Q149083)
ESSENTIAL: RAM memory assistance: RAMpage 1.6
Automatic Deletion of all TIF, TEMP & index.dat files. Delindex & EmpTemp
(Do NOT forget to turn these OFF when up-dating your system or software !)
SpyBot is VERY revealing! Click on the Language flag. SpyBot
To remove IE5.5 cleanly before installing IE6.0 IEradicator
MICRON RAM at CRUCIAL OR PRICEWATCH
RAM testing: DocMemory 2.0 & MemTest 86
Correct a ... possible ... VxD fault in your Win98, 98SE, ME
Many users are reporting elimination of VxD faults by installing VxDs from the Win9x/ME
installation CD.
The VXDs you may need to install are:
configmg.vxd , ntkern.vxd , vcomm.vxd , vdd.vxd , vdmad.vxd , vflatd.vxd , vmouse.vxd
LOOK HERE FIRST ... To view the contents of VMM32.VxD run RegEdit and go to the Key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control/VMM32Files
where the right pane shows all the files that comprise VMM32.VxD
The 7 MISSING VXDs '98 only BSOD-FIX
Swapfile Optimization
NTFS/FAT
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