When doing a major upgrade of any program, there are things that should be considered other than the minimum requirements you see listed for the program. There is maintenance that should be done (even done on regular basis to keep the computer running correctly) to help you get the best installation possible.
When was the last time you defragged the computer?
Fragmentation of files, especially heavily used files are one of the things I consider to slow down a computer system. Consider how the system handles files. You create a file on the hard drive. You then create more files. In the meantime, you delete one or two of those files. What happens is the system will sort of delete it. What it does is make the space available again for writing. It actually leaves the file data alone. The next time a file is written, that available space is then written . If the file uses all of the space and needs some more, the system looks to where some more available space is then writes it there, doing this till the complete file is written.
Example:
Lets say you have written File1, File2, File3 and File4 on your computer. All of varying lengths. Imagine that they are written sequentially, one file after another.
File1_Starts Here........................................................Ends
Here
File2_Starts Here....................................Ends Here
File3_Starts Here........................................................Ends
Here
File4_Starts Here.......................Ends Here
You delete File2.
File1_Starts Here........................................................Ends
Here
@ile2_Starts Here....................................Ends Here
File3_Starts Here........................................................Ends
Here
File4_Starts Here.......................Ends Here
The system makes the space available, here represented by the @ character. Now you write File5.
File1_Starts Here........................................................Ends
Here
File5_Starts Here....................................Partly Ends Here
File3_Starts Here........................................................Ends
Here
File4_Starts Here.......................Ends Here
File5_Starts Here Again.....................................................Ends
Here.
File5 has taken up the space that File2 had used and since File5 was larger that the space made available when File2 was deleted, it found the next open area (after File4) and finished writing it there.
File5 is fragmented. Its not in one complete section on the hard drive. Imagine this happening with hundreds of files. Programs write to the hard drive as needed and delete some of those files as well. When you create a file, all of it can not be stored in memory. Its stored on the hard drive in some form of a temporary file (usually .tmp). So, actually when you created the first four files, you actually created eight files, a temp file as it's called for each one. You have to throw that into the mix as well as to what all is written and deleted on the hard drive.
Now, the biggest temp file created is called the Windows Swap File (Win9x) and Page File (WinNT, 2000 and XP). The system has to have some overhead because it too can not put everything in memory. We're talking about a lot of files here that are being written here and there on the hard drive, trying to find the first open space available and following up to the next open space and on and on. Talk about fragmentation. This is one thing that can slow down the computer.
Now, consider Internet Explorer (IE) and Outlook Express (OE, Microsoft uses OLX, I believe) . Internet Explorer, like all web browsers, have a place to store the web pages you read. It is called the Temporary Internet Files (TIF) folder. It also has a file that is written that indexes those pages. So both will grow larger, taking up more hard drive space as you read more web pages. There are graphic images, HTML files, scripts, cascading style sheets and who can say what all else is there. It just grows and grows till you empty the TIF.
Outlook Express 4, uses as IDX and MBX file to store the messages. Outlook Express 5.0 and up uses a DBX file to store the messages. When you get email, you get the message stored in one of those files depending upon which version you are using. There are also a couple of more files used to help keep up with the Mail folders you have in Outlook Express and keeping track of the last messages read on the mail server. So OE is writing to the hard drive and trying to get the data stored somewhere on the hard drive. Consider how much you use it. These message stores can get fragmented just as bad as anything else on the hard drive. It also causes some slowness in OE, though there can be other causes of the slowness. If OE is running okay, consider doing a little clean up and see if that helps. The newer versions of OE also dumps the read messages into IE's TIF folder. So you're getting more temp files that are not being cleaned out of the system.
Since both IE and OE are taking up space on the hard drive and as you add and delete from it, they too are writing where they can find the available space. So, what do we do? We need to do a bit of maintenance to try to keep this fragmentation down as much as possible. Though that is totally impossible, a good once a month clean up day helps a lot.
Well, we've got an understanding of sorts as to what is going on with the system and since we're planning on upgrading, it might not hurt to seriously see what we can do to makes things go a bit smoother.
First, start with Outlook Express. Go thru the messages and delete the ones you can get rid of, you know the ones, someone replied back with just a Smiley :-). Delete them.
Second, do you tend to leave a lot of messages in the Inbox? Not a good idea. Why? Because from what I've seen (as well as others), if the Inbox gets too many messages in it, you could lose them one day for what you would think is no reason at all. Actually it got so big it couldn't handle the file size and if it's fragmented, think about where it has to read from the hard drive. It might have to go to over a 1000 different locations or more to keep up with things. This would akin to a mechanic buying that 1000 piece tool set and then putting each piece in a different place in the garage. Not exactly the fastest way to accomplish something when you need them, he would be running back and forth all day just trying to get tools. Then he has to put them all back when he's done. This guy isn't getting much work done.
So? Consider when the mail comes in to use the Message Rules to move it to different mail folders in OE. Also, seriously consider archiving old message either in multiple other folder (if you need access to them) or completely out of OE's DBX files. Just keep the file size down below say fifty or so megabytes. It may sound like a lot but actually it's not if you use HTML messages.
So you've gone thru the messages, deleted the ones you don't need to keep, moved some mail from the Inbox to some other folders, now it's time to empty the Deleted Items folder. Once done, look in the File menu and select Folders then select Compact All. Let it compact all the message folders and close OE. Sometimes doing this two or more times can get a bit more space back.
Now, on to the system itself. We need to empty the TIF that belongs to Internet Explorer, the Temp folder that belongs to Windows (this is the dumping ground so to speak where programs will put temporary files during an installation or when run and seemly forgets to clean up after itself). It's wasting space here.
Close down all programs that are currently running. They might be using the Temp folder for storage and we're going to clear it out.
I like using a little batch file I call TIF.BAT. This little file is run before I boot up the system on Windows 9x. It consists of three lines:
smartdrv
deltree /y C:\Windows\Tempor~1
deltree /y C:\Windows\Temp
Smartdrv is a disk caching program that helps speed up things and believe me, without it, deleting the TIF can take forever without it.
The command deltree is a delete program that also deletes the folder that are contained within it. The regular DOS command del can not delete folders if they are in another folder, so deltree was created. The /y on it tells deltree to answer Yes to all the Do You Wish To Delete questions that will pop up. It saves you a lot of time not having to keep punching the Y key.
The Tempor~1 is the old DOS 8.3 filename for Temporary Internet Files. You could enclose the full name in quotes and it will do the same as using the 8.3 filename.
To use the batch file, just boot up to DOS (Win9x)
For Win9x:
Save the TIF.BAT file to the C: drive then shut down.
Start the computer. When you hear the computer beep, press (and sometimes hold down) the F8 key to get to the boot menu. Select Command Prompt Only.
At the C:> prompt just type in TIF.bat and press ENTER. It does all the work from there. When done, restart the computer.
For Win NT, 2000 or XP, your best bet is to just delete the Temp files using Windows Explorer and empty the TIF from Internet Explorer. Tools | Internet Options then press the Delete Files button and also check the box for Delete Offline Content. The folder locations are in a totally different place.
My understanding of NT, 2000 and XP is that fragmentation is not a big deal, so you can probably skip this part. For Windows 9x, you defintely need to defrag the computer next. START | Programs | Accessories | System Tools | Disk Defragmenter (or what ever other defrag program you may use like Norton's or OnTrack). Some people like to start up in Safe Mode to do this since it does not load any drivers or other programs that are done in a normal start up. Other will just use Task Manager (CTRL-ALT-DELETE) to end task on all running programs except Systray and Explorer.
Once finished, you're ready to install the latest and greatest.... Sounds like a lot to do doesn't it. Not really when you think in each step, I've used a lot of examples and text in general to describe a few key stroke and mouse moves and clicks.
So, can all this be trimmed down in a nutshell?
1) Message maintenance - delete any old messages, move old message from the Inbox to another folder, empty the Deleted Items folder and compact the message stores using File | Folders | Compact All
2) Empty Internet Explorer's Temporary Internet Files folder (Tools | Internet Options | Delete Files and check the box for Delete Offline Content
2a) My addition, boot to DOS and totally delete the TIF (and Temp) folder. It also removes the Index.dat file that does not get removed when doing item #2 above. This seems to pose some problems when start the newer version you are installing.
3) Empty the Windows Temp folder.
4) Scandisk if you haven't in quite some time then defrag.
That's it in a nutshell.