How do I move the swap file?
Add to that laundry list:
Clean out the temp folder - usually C: emp or C: mp Somewhere in Control Panel, you ought to be able to find a spot to move the temp drive to the D: drive as well.
Also, empty out the Temporary Internet files. In IE, click Tools, Internet Options, then Delete Files - it’s right in the center, on the General tab. (This is what’s referred to as “clearing the cache” for your browser.) Then, click Settings, right next to it, and set the space reserved for temp files to something sane like 10 meg.
Finally - 64 meg of shared ram? ugh. For your own sanity, perhaps you might want to get a stick of 128 meg and sneak it into the box. Spending $36 at Crucial may go a long way in saving your sanity, and the relatives will think you’re a genius for making their PC so much faster.
I did clean out temp files, ran disk cleanup, scan disk and defrag on both partitons. I also cleared temp internet files and reduced the size they had set for the cache - it was at the default, very huge.
I hear you about the memory, but I can’t even spare the bucks to upgrade my own.
I might spring for the copy of Partiton Magic (found one for $15 on eBay, v.7) but I don’t want to encourage them to keep looking to me for help when a new computer that can handle the stuff they want to run would be a better idea.
Since everyone else seems to have the problem answered, I thought I’d just mention that one possible reason for partitioning a hard drive this way is to be able to reinstall the operating system without losing the data.
I used to do something similar, back in the days when I’d have Windows 95, Windows NT, OS/2, or who knows what else loaded on my system at any given time, especially during my MCSE studying. I also used to spend a lot of time trying every beta application I could get my hands on. I was frequently reloading the OS, and the best way to be able to reformat and reload to a clean partition without having to worry about losing data I wanted to keep was to keep small primary partitions just big enough for the OS and use larger logical drives for holding the applications and data.
It was also handy when dual booting operating systems. I would have Win95, WinNT, and OS/2 boot partitions with one large data partition accessible by all operating systems. That way I could get to my data regardless of what OS I was booted into at the time.
Generally sound advice. Except don’t use just enough space for the OS. XP requires at least 200 MB of free space, and don’t forget to allow room for the paging file. Plus, when you consider all the patches and service packs, you need probably 3 GB minimum.
I haven’t read if this was commented yet but my 20 GB HD is partitioned as follows:
C: 1.50 GB
D: 18.50 GB.
Windows 2000 folder, Program Files folder and Document and Settings are in drive C. All my valuable data is in drive D.
It’s working very fine. If my computer is starting to slow down, I only format drive C: and reinstall Windows.
“They said they have been getting a lot of blue screens and lock ups, things weren’t running smoothly.”
A neat thing you can do about this is to defrag the registry. It does it on a restart. First time I did this with W98 there were several hundred links that it corrected & the size of the registry went from about 3 megs to one. When things slow, then I defrag the registry.