[Thinkpad] Maintenance sw and SLOW loading of data files in various apps

[Aryeh Goretsky]

Hello,

Is your virtual memory paging swap file on disk volume C:?  If so, it might
be heavily fragmented.  Here is one way to correct this:

1.  First off, close all the applications that you can so they are no longer
     running.  If you have any programs or updates that require the system to
     be rebooted, you should reboot and let them finish up, since the next step
     is likely to kill any pending file moves from installation programs.

2.  Clear the Temporary File and Temporary Internet File folders.  I do this
     under Microsoft Windows XP by issuing the following commands at a Command
     Prompt:

       CD /D %TEMP%     (takes me to the directory defined by the 
TEMP variable)
       CD ..            (moves me up a subdirectory)
       RD /S /Q TEMP    (deletes the TEMP directory and all 
subdirs/files below it)
       MKDIR TEMP       (creates a new TEMP directory)

     Depending upon how your computer is set up, the Temporary Internet File
     directory is probably in the same directory as TEMP folder.  If 
this is the
     case, you can issue a

       RD /S /Q "Temporary Internet Files"

     command at the Command Prompt to mostly clear it, too (a few things like
     cookies and INDEX.DAT files won't be deleted).

3.  Disable the virtual memory paging swap file by starting the System applet
     from the Control Panel, clicking on the Advanced tab, clicking on the
     Settings button under Performance to bring up the Performance 
Options window,
     clicking on the Advanced tab, clicking on the Change button under Virtual
     Memory and selecting the "No paging file" option.

     Commit the change and you will be prompted to restart the 
system.  Press F8
     during the boot up process to start the computer in Safe Mode.  Once the
     computer has finished booting up, defragment disk volume C:.

     Go into the properties for Virtual Memory again, and create a Custom-sized
     page file, with the Initial and Maximum values both set to 
768MB.  Normally,
     I would recommend more, but since you do not have a lot of free 
space, let's
     see if this works for you.

Restart the system, and see if it performs any better.  If not, try increasing
the size of the Initial and Maximum values in the page file to 1024MB.

If the system is still performing poorly, you may wish to consider moving some
of the disk volumes from the first hard disk drive to the second one and
resize the C: disk volume to use their space.  The virtual machine and
applications disk volumes are probably good candidates for this.

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky


At 08:52 PM 9/30/2006, you wrote:
>Message: 3
>Date: Sat, 30 Sep 2006 01:11:45 -0400
>From: Frank K-F <ferko at attglobal.net>
>Subject: Re: [Thinkpad] Maintenance sw and SLOW loading of data files
>         in      various apps
>To: "Paul A. Pennington" <paulpenn at knology.net>,        Frank K-F
>         <ferko at attglobal.net>
>Cc: thinkpad at stderr.org
>Message-ID: <451DFC91.6070703 at attglobal.net>
>Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed
>
>All my drives (partitions) are "low" by the 20% definition but, except
>for my F-partition (data files) all other have been low.  Have TM A31p
>with 2GH P4 CPU and 2GB memory.  My disk "1" is 100GB .. and as reported
>in PartitionMagic, the partitions are as follows (and have been
>organized like this for years):
>
>         C:  OpSys (W-XP-SP2) and related  Windows files .. as well as a
>few apps that don't give option at install elsewhere.  14.5GB tot  2.2GB
>free
>         D:  VM  4GB   ...  3.7GB free
>          E:   Apps  13.4GB  ... 2.9GB free
>          F:   Data   62GB  ... 7GB free
>
>My disk "2" is 60GB and  41GB free.
>
>No dramatic changes occurred recently .. no new apps installed, no
>massive files added.
>
>This is the snap shot of the moment ... and the slow loading data files
>are agonizingly slow.
>
>Frank K-F