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This article covers various ways of making your hard disk run more efficiently. In particular, it details ways of saving space and ways of helping to keep your system in tiptop form!
With the complexities of the Windows operating system, it can seem that disk space just ups and disappears! Those of us old enough to remember our massive 20-megabyte hard disks find that today's two-gigabyte disks a bit limiting! Where does all this space go?
Well, a lot can disappear with temporary files — files created whilst we use our applications. Normally, these are removed when the application finishes, but as we all know, it's not every time that a program ends normally! At these times, we can end up with all sorts of rubbish lying around. This can be detrimental to our systems in the following ways:
- Temporary files take up much needed disk space
- Applications can crash due to old temporary files lying around.
- System crashes — if the windows swap file gets corrupted due to unstable temporary files
There are other files that can also clutter up our systems which are safely removable.We shall deal with these latter on in the article. First, temporary files — how to manage and maintain a better system.
Care should be taken when carrying out these procedures. You MUST follow the instructions carefully to avoid problems!
There are a couple of things we can do to make it easier to manage our systems from the threat of temporary files. These are:
- Create a set place for the system to create temporary files, rather than having them created all over the hard disk.
- Clear out the set place on a regular basis, especially after a system or application crash
Here's how:
Creating a Set Place for Temporary Files
To do this requires the creation of a directory (or folder if you prefer). Add two lines to a file called AUTOEXEC.BAT. Follow these steps to do this. (This can be done for Windows 3.x users too — rather than Windows Explorer — you would use the File Manager)
1) Launch Windows Explorer
2) Go to the root directory of your C: drive (so that you see Contents of C:)
3) Click on the File menu and select New . . . Folder
4) When the folder is created call the folder TEMP
5) . You should now have a folder called TEMP in your root directory (that is C:TEMP)
That's the creation of the folder. Now we need to change the AUTOEXEC.BAT file. This file controls how your system starts and will contain commands that your system uses in order to find files and to set what are called Environment Variables. Environment variables are values placed in memory when your machine is switched on that any program can use to find out about your system (its' working environment).
You probably have these for your sound card and programs can use these to detect your sound set up. This is how programs seem to know how your system is set up. One of the environment variables we can set up is to tell programs where to put temporary files. We are going to set this up so that all application temporary files are placed in the folder we have just created.
Now we are going to change the AUTOEXEC.BAT file so that this happens. Before you start, it's a good idea to take a copy of it (use Explorer and copy it to another directory/folder so that if things go wrong, you can copy your existing file back). The AUTOEXEC.BAT file also lives in the C: directory. To make the changes, carry out the following steps:
1) Launch Windows Explorer
2) Look in the C: directory and click the left mouse button once on AUTOEXEC.BAT so that it is highlighted
3) Click the right mouse button and select Edit from the popup menu that appears. DO NOT ATTEMPT TO OPEN IT!
4) Notepad will open the AUTOEXEC.BAT file — ready for the changes we are going to make.
5) Place the mouse on the first line and press the RETURN key to insert a new, blank line
6) Type in the following two lines exactly as shown:
SET TEMP=C:TEMP
SET TMP=C:TEMP Ensure that you press the RETURN key after the first line has been entered
7) Save and Exit Notepad
8) Shut your system down and reboot. That's it!
Now, when an application creates temporary files, it will place them in the TEMP directory we created. This makes it easy for us to find and delete old temporary files.
Deleting Old Temporary Files
This job is simple now! Just go the C:TEMP folder and delete all the files and directories you find there! You should make sure, however, that you are not running any other windows application when you do this! After a serious system crash, it is advisable to reboot your PC after deleting the temporary files.
You may find that Windows cannot delete some of the files. Don't panic; this means those files are in use and can be safely ignored.
Other Disk Hogging Files
Near the beginning of this article, I mentioned about other files that can take up disk space that can be deleted. Some of these files (like help files) should only be deleted if you no longer need help in that area (like some of the beginner's Windows help files). If you are in any doubt, leave the files alone. Here is a list of file types that you can search for that may be deleted.
DO NOT do a massive, global delete of these files as some applications (especially shareware titles), may need certain text files like README.TXT.
*.tmp Temporary files — can be deleted
*.bak Backup files — depends on application
*.avi (In WINDOWS) Video files — Windows 95 comes with lots of beginner files that take up lots of disk space. Delete these if you no longer need them
*.txt Text files — Often installed with programs. Once read they can often be deleted
*.hlp Be careful with this one — but help files DO take up a lot of disk space. Only delete if you are positive you do not need them
*.me Often part of README.TXT or README.1ST type files
*.old Often found when programs install and change system settings — these files can usually be removed
*.doc Careful! some programs use these for their read me files — but so might your word processor!
By regularly keeping track of what goes onto your hard disk, you can ensure that your system does not become cluttered!
Next week's article looks at adding an additional hard disk to your system. Things you need to think about.
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