Optimising Performance ME / 9x		Fdisk & Format			   05/01/2003

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 30% (approx 17Gb) to run ME and Office 2000 
plus RealOnePlayer, NAV/NIS, a Power DVD and about 30 other software applications.

With the 30% 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 70% 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: = 30% & D: = 70%  (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 
feature in VoptXP (a default setting with '98se) the entire system runs much better. 
(So far that is!)

IML.

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

[Reply or follow-up to this message]