PC load and shut-down speeds

[JTrader]

Hi guys

I have xp home, 80gb HD, 512 DDR RAM on my PC.

I had to FDISK my hard-drive, erase everything and start again.

Now I'm sure that the PC load and shut-down speeds are slower than before. It now takes about 32-seconds to load and shut down (this seems to last forever).

I'm not sure how everything was installed previously, but this time I have just a primary partition - that contains everything and is 80 gb.

If I'd created a 40gb primary partition (C), and a 40gb extended partition (F - which I'd save for later when everytihng is full on the primary disk), would this have improved the speed of the PC loadings and shut-downs? and would XP automatically be installed on both C and F?

What is the best way to ensure quicker PC load and shut-down speeds?

Is there anything that i can do now, without having to wipe everything and completely start again - in order to improve PC load and shut-down speeds?

Many thanks

jtrader.

 

[Directional]

why did you have to take the drastic action of complete format and reinstall?

System load time will depend to a large extent on what processes are being loaded by the OS. If it loads slower now than it did before, its likely due to your re-installation using the canned XP configuration, rather than whatever system settings you had before which would obviously have been lost in the wipe.

Check out: http://www.tweakxp.com/

 

[JonnyT]

Why did you reinstall XP? I've only once had to resort to that since it came out as an IT Pro.

Its always a good idea to have the OS on its own partition and data / applications on others with Windows. However this won't be affecting your boot time.

Factors that may are:

1) Are you sure you reinstalled and didn't repair? Either way apply all the Windows updates.
2) It may be possible that XP hasn't picked up your Hard Drive or controller correctly and thus isn't using the full capabilities.
3) Your may be infected with a Virus/Trojan or Spyware.
4) There may be an Hardware conflict.

HTH

JonnyT

 

[dc2000]

Hi Jtrader

A couple of other things spring to mind

if you have also reinstalled other software that could be loading up and sitting in the background these will show as little icons on the bottom right of the screen.

Also in new machines Win XP is usually set to quick boot did you install the original copy of XP or was it installed when you purchased the machine

 

[JTrader]

Hi

why did you have to take the drastic action of complete format and reinstall?

I had what I believe is known as "the blue screen of death." ??

In any case, nothing would load, I could not access the BIOS etc. and i thought it would be an interesting challenge to broaden my IT experience! I also thought it may be good as I'd installed and then un-installed so many programs on the PC.

I did this about 4 months ago, reinstalled my orignal OEM XP, and all my software. XP is completely up-to-date, theres no virus' and i keep spyware at bay.

It took me about 16 hours all in all so I don't plan to do it again!!

If installing the OS on a seperate partition, how big a partition is recommended for XP home?



Cheers

jtrader.

 

[JonnyT]

8GB is fine for a boot partition on XP.

As an example:

C:/ Boot partition - OS only
D:/ Applications - i.e. Office etc
E:/ Data - i.e My Documents etc

That way defragging, backing up, ghosting etc is much easier and manageable.

JonnyT

 

[pchivers]

A previous version of ZoneAlarm was a slow shutdown culprit for me.
I installed Microsoft's "User Profile Hive Cleanup Service" to fix it.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...6d-8912-4e18-b570-42470e2f3582&DisplayLang=en

It made my shutdowns trouble free.
HTH
Paul

 

[Zzoom]

Quicker shutdown in XP:

Run Regedit and then:

Navigate to: HKEY_CURRENT_USER -> Control Panel -> Desktop
Double-click this value on the right side: WaitToKillAppTime
Make this change: change the value to a lower number, expressed in milliseconds, so 5 seconds would be 5000
Make this change as well: Double click HungAppTimeout and change it to a lower time too.

Click Ok, quit RegEdit and restart thePC, quicker shutdowns should follow

Dont forget to at least make a note of the original settings before changing them.

Zzoom

 

[arnie]

If you've reloaded everything then check the settings in your antivirus software too. Some AV products default to do a quick scan at shutdown and this will dramatically increase shutdown time.

 

[JTrader]

8GB is fine for a boot partition on XP.

As an example:

C:/ Boot partition - OS only
D:/ Applications - i.e. Office etc
E:/ Data - i.e My Documents etc

That way defragging, backing up, ghosting etc is much easier and manageable.

JonnyT

Thanks JonnyT.

As it stands I have one 76.3gb primary partition only on the 'C' drive with everything - including Windows XP saved on it.

Is it now possible for me to implement the above recommendations without starting from scratch and wiping my hard disk and creating new primary and extended partitions?

Or, because my existing primary partition occupies 100% of the hard disk, Would I need to start from scratch to implement the above? (I suspect that this may be the case)

If it is possible to implement the above without starting from scratch, please could you give an outline of the procedure, for me to look into it further.

Thanks a lot.

jtrader.