Law Practice Today

Hard Disk performance has a much greater impact upon a computer’s performance than most non-technical users might realize. Speeding up hard disk performance can make as much improvement as upgrading to a new computer with a later generation processor. Luckily, increasing hard disk performance can be straightforward and doesn’t require you to replace your entire computer system.

Improving Existing Hard Disk Performance : The performance of all hard disks, whether old or new, gradually degrades as they are used and files are stored and moved around. This is an inherent problem with the Windows operating system, not the hardware. The Windows operating system has a tendency to scatter partial fragments of each computer file all of the hard disk. That makes the hard disk’s read-write heads work much harder to load an application program or to read and write a data file, thus greatly slowing down a computer’s overall operation, regardless of how fast its processor might be.

The best solution is to continuously defragment your hard disk. In an ideal world, Windows should defragment every drive automatically in the background in order to maintain optimal performance but Windows does not do so. Windows does include a disk defragmenting utility under the Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Defragment menu item, but that Microsoft utility is mediocre. It has few options, must be run manually by the operation, slows a computer to a crawl while running for an hour or two, and does not really optimize disk performance. Still, it’s better than nothing and it’s provided free with the Windows operating system.

Several other system utility collections, such as Norton, include somewhat better hard disk optimization programs. However, in my experience, the clear choice for hard disk defragmentation and performance optimization is the Diskeeper family of products, available as downloads from www.diskeeper.com Diskeeper allows you to download a free trial copy of the program that remains fully functional for 30 days, after which you must purchase a license and activate the product to continue using it. A free 30 day trial is useful as a one-time shot in the arm for a slowing computer and allows you to evaluate whether purchasing the product is worthwhile. Diskeeper’s “Home” version sells for $29.95, the “Professional” version for $59.95, and the “Pro Premier” version for $99.95. I suggest that the “Professional” version makes the most sense economically. It continuously optimizes and defragments your hard disk in the background without imposing a serious drain upon computing resources. There is no reason to buy the optional “Hyperfast” add-on module unless you have one of the new, cutting-edge solid state hard drives, and I don’t know a single person who does. Even if you should replace your old hard disk with a new, faster drive, you’ll still notice a substantial performance improvement with continuous defragmentation.

Removing junk and temporary files from your hard disk and compressing the data can also improve system performance under some circumstances and, in any event, maximize your available storage. To access Microsoft’s hard disk cleanup tools, click on My Computer, then right click to select the hard disk to be cleaned and compressed, then click on the Properties menu item. A graphic display shows how much of the total hard disk space is in use. In the graphic display for that hard disk, first click on the Disk Cleanup radio button. This will scan the selected hard disk for unused old files, temporary Internet content files, and other files that can be safely deleted. Then, left click on the Compress drive and the Allow Indexing Service check boxes, and start these operations by left clicking on the Apply button. Then, sit back, make some coffee, and find a good book. You’ll not be using your computer for some time. After you’ve completed these tasks, and they must be performed separately for each hard disk, click on the tools menu item at the top of the disk’s graphic display. You’ll see several options including Error-Checking a hard disk and Defragmentation. Run Error Checking prior to defragmenting the drive. Otherwise, any disk errors may spread during the defragmentation process. If you have purchased Diskeeper, then that optional program will start when you press the Defragmentation program. Otherwise, Microsoft’s defragmentation accessory will run. At the end of this rather tedious process, your hard disk should be in pretty decent shape and running noticeably faster.

Rescuing Windows

Windows certainly has its foibles and it’s a bit odd that the most effective fixes are typically inexpensive or free third party utilities available primarily as Internet purchases or as free downloads. Here is some software that I’ve found invaluable when a Windows installation has become unstable or slow but is not yet so flaky that a time-consuming re-installation becomes necessary. Think of these as minor maintenance.

Ace Utilities : Ace Utilities is a reliable compact program that’s much less expensive than Norton, with lower system demands. Except for hard disk optimization, it performs basically the same diagnostics and Windows Registry clearing as Norton Utilities but only on demand rather than as a potentially intrusive background process that runs continuously. I’ll typically run Ace Utilities as a first response whenever a computer system seems to be balky or slightly unstable. You can download a 30 day trial version at www.acelogix.com

Free RAM Optimizer : Acelogix also provides, as a free download to its customers, a Windows memory optimizer. I’ve installed it on a home computer with 2GB RAM, a computer that’s often used to edit photo files that may be several hundred megabytes each. This system often slowed nearly to a halt as a result of RAM overloads and resultant hard disk data swapping. Ace’s RAM Optimizer seems to have somewhat reduced such performance bottlenecks to a tolerable level without any noticeable adverse effects. Programs like this may make some difference when available RAM is low as a result of many programs loaded simultaneously or when you are intensively processing very large files, such as running text recognition on a several hundred page Acrobat document or sharpening a massive photographic file. You can download this program from www.acelogix.com. However, you really are better off simply replacing and increasing the amount of DRAM in your system.

Measuring and Upgrading Windows Performance: I’ve mentioned Diskeeper ( www.diskeeper.com) before as one of the most effective long terms ways to improve overall computer performance. Other useful programs for detecting bottlenecks and tuning hard disk performance are HD Tune and Performance Test (www.passmark.com ). You can download a free 30 day trial of the full Performance Test program and I recommend it as a means of finding performance bottlenecks in your existing system and checking whether any upgrades are worthwhile. Remember the common wisdom that you’ll need at least a 50% overall system performance increase before an ordinary business user will perceive any useful improvement. Passmark also provides a 30 day free trial of their “burn-in” software that stress tests computer systems for potentially flaky components. You should definitely run burn-in software on any new system, particularly before any return period expires.

Belarc Advisor: Windows handles security and other issues by applying a series of “patches” to fix specific portions of the operating system code. Sometimes, though, patches are not properly applied and various portions of your operating system can become mismatched and thus potentially unstable. BelArc Advisor, a free download available from www.belarc.com, checks your operating system for vulnerabilities, installed software and its status, and Windows components. If one or more Windows components or patches are not as they should be, such items are flagged and you will be directed to the specific part of Microsoft’s web site where a corrective download and/or more information are available. This program is invaluable when you need it. It certainly beats reinstalling Windows and all of your programs and data, not to mention relicensing hassles. Belarc Advisor also provides a lot of other useful information about your hardware and software, such as data on all installed programs.

Dial-a-Fix: The other free Windows repair utility that’s occasionally worked wonders on an unstable system is “Dial-a-Fix”, which I’ve found available from a number of sites on the Web. Dial-a-Fix has resurrected systems that otherwise seemed destined for a hard disk reformat and complete reinstallation of Windows. I have never experienced any damage a Windows installation from its use. In addition to trying the basic menu options, also try some of the various options in the Tools button but avoid any of the reinstallation options unless absolutely necessary.

CPUID: This handy little program is free from www.cpuid.com and will provide a great deal of potentially useful information about your CPU processor, installed memory and system board. It’s a useful way to inspect a computer system before deciding upon whether and how to upgrade a computer system.

Hard disk failures: I have found a lot of useful hard disk resurrection and repair information at http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk This site links to some potentially useful open-source programs but I have not personally tested them.

So in the end understand that it may not be necessary for you to purchase a new computer to upgrade performance. An investment of time and readily available tools may be all that you need.