Installation Guides - Making Windows More Productive On Only One Hard Dirve posted in the Tutorials forums; * * * * * Making Window's More Productive On One Hard Drive * * * * * Wouldn't we all like Window's to be more productive? Sure we would. ...
Making Windows More Productive On Only One Hard Dirve
* * * * * Making Window's More Productive On One Hard Drive* * * * *
Wouldn't we all like Window's to be more productive? Sure we would. In this tutorial we will show you step by step instructions on how to partition your harddrive, make Windows faster and more stable.
Warning: following these instructions will erase your hard drive and all of the contents in it; please backup any important information onto a cd or dvd or another hard drive before beginning the procedure.
Before following this tutorial, please read this version thouroughly and print the Printer Friendly version as a reference while you are formatting and partitioning your hard drive. Also before beginning, please download all of the listed programs and save them to a cd/dvd with your other programs. That way you have a copy of them and you can do the operations in order.
For this tutorial we are going to use a 40 gigabyte Harddrive as a base. (If you have a bigger hard drive, the first three partition's and first three number's will still pertain to you. It is only the last partition number that will be larger. If your harddrive is smaller, you will need to do calculations, please post for instructions)
Step 1.
First put the windows cd into the cd/dvd rom drive and boot up. There will be a black screen that will say "press any key to boot from cd", press any key. You will see windows preloading a bunch of files, when it is finished, you will see a window that looks like the picture below.
Press Enter to "Setup Windows Now".
Next you will see a window asking you to agree to the EULA. Go ahead and press F8 to agree to the End Users License Agreement.
After you press F8 another window will appear like the one below, and you will be ready for the next section.
The numbers in this image will not necessarily reflect your numbers, the image is for example purposes only.
Step 2 Creating The Partitions
Press C on the highlighted disk drive, this is going to create your first partition, your XP partition. This will take you to another window seen below. (Just remember C is for Create if it makes it any easier).
After Pressing C(Create), there will be a window asking how much space you would like to allocate to the partition. Type the following number in the box, 15360. (You're Probably wondering, "where is he getting this number?" Well when you get a 40 gigabyte hard dirve you are not getting 40 gigabytes of hard drive for Windows. Windows recognizes a gigabyte as 1,024 megabyte's, so you will see only about 38 gigabytes on your hard drive. Not to worry, this is normal.)This will be your Operating System partition, your C drive. After entering that number press Enter. This will take you back to the previous window.
Press the down arrow on your keyboard untill you get to the line that says
'Unallocated Space".
Again select the C option to create another partition.
This time you are going to enter the number 1024. This will be your Paging File, your D drive, press Enter.
This will take you back again to the previous window.
Again, press the down arrow untill you get to the line that says
'Unallocated Space".
Press C again, in the box enter this number, 5120. This will be your document and internet explorer temp file partiton, your E drive. Press Enter and return to the previous window.
One last time press your down arrow to select "Unallocated Space".
Press C, then Enter. This is going to be your Program, music and other multi media partiton, your F drive. Press Enter again to return to the previous window.
This time make sure the C drive is highlighted, if not, use your arrow keys to highlight it. Press Enter and you will come upon the image below. Choose "format the file using the NTFS file system". Do not choose the Fast option as it does not check the harddrive for errors.
Press Enter.
Windows will now begin installing itself onto your C partition. Depending on your hardware it can take up to 60 minute's. During this process you will have to enter the time, time zone, The XP product key, and your keyboard layout, as well as pertinent personal information.
Step 3 Formating Your Partitions
Once you get into your desktop the first thing to do is right click on MY COMPUTER, then click on Manage. There will be a window that pops up, click on DISK MANAGEMENT. You will see your partition's now.
You will format them one at a time, right click on your D drive first, and click on format. A box will appear, check the box that says do a fast format, where it asks for the label of the drive type in Page File, and click OK.
Repeat the same proccess for your E drive, naming it My Documents, then your F drive naming it Other or Programs. Close out of Management.
Next right-click on My Computer, click on Properties. A box will open with several tabs, click the Advanced tab. On this tab you will see several sections, locate Performance and click the Settings button.
Next click on the circle next to Adjust For Best Performance.
Next click on the circle next to Custom.
Make a check mark in the boxes that say 1) Use common Tasks in folders.
2)Use visual styles on windows and buttons. You will have the same look as XP without it taking so much ram away from you.
Click Apply
Still in Performance Options, you should see an Advanced tab. Click on the tab and then click on Virtual Memory. Another box will open up showing your drives. Click on the C drive and then select, No paging file, then click Set. Next click on your D drive and select, Custom Size, type in 1024 for both minimum and maximum, then click on Set. Reboot your computer. Click Apply See image Below..
Still in Performance Options, you should see an Advanced tab. Click on the tab and then click on Virtual Memory. Another box will open up showing your drives. Click on the C drive and then select, No paging file, then click Set. Next click on your D drive and select, Custom Size, type in 1024 for both minimum and maximum, then click on Set. Reboot your computer. See images below.
Step 4
Once back in Windows install all of the drivers for your devices; Printers, Video Card, etc.
After you install the drivers you will be rebooting into safe mode. (While the computer is booting, repeatedly tap the F8 key until you get a menu. Use your arrow keys to select Safe Mode, and press Enter.) Once in Safe Mode, double click My Computer, right-click on C drive, and click on Properties.
Select the Tools tab. Click on Defragment Now. It may take awhile the first time but it will put all the sytem files in the front before you start installing other programs so this will make windows move a lot more quickly. After defragging is complete, reboot into regular mode.
Step 5
Once Back in Windows, right-click on My Documents, and click on Properties. Press the Move button, you will be asked to select a destination, click on the + next to My Computer, click on your E drive, and press OK. You will be asked if you want to move your documents there, click on Yes.
Before the next step, go to your E drive, and create a New Folder, name it Temporary Internet Files. Next right-click on Internet Explorer, click on Properties. Under Temporary Internet Files, click the Settings tab, you will see a number around 1,080, highlight that box and change it to 80. (This way Internet Explorer does not take up over a gigabyte of your space for temp files.) Now while in the same window press the Move Folder button, click on your E drive, select Temporary Internet Files, click apply. You will be asked to log off, do so. Log back on and now your IE temp files will not cloud Xp's operations.
Next right-click any open space on the desktop and click Properties. Click the Screensaver tab. Click on the Power box, choose the Hybernate tab. Uncheck the box that says Enable Hibernation, (which also takes 511 megabytes of space from you), click apply.
Make sure you have a firewall installed before going online. If you do not have one please go to Zone Labs and install Zone Alarm, you can always change afterwards, it is free and a very good firewall.
Next download CCleanerand install it onto your F Drive. Run it and it will clean all the temp files on your PC. PCHF recommends using it every 3 day's.
You can go extra steps to save more disk space by right clicking the recycle bin and lowering the amount of space it takes up by moving the slider towards the left. By default it takes up 10% of yuor hard drive space so a 20 gigabyte partiton it would take up 2 gigs of space.
We hope this tutorial helps you and your PC.. Happy Computing
The Staff at PCHF
BEFORE FOLLOWING THESE INSTRUCTIONS READ THE FULL VERSION WITH PICTURES COMPLETELY.
YOU WILL NEED THIS PRINT OUT DURING THE PROCESS
* * * * * Making Window's More Productive On One Hard Drive* * * *
Warning: following these instructions will erase your hard drive and all of the contents in it; please backup any important information onto a cd or dvd or another hard drive before beginning the procedure.
Before following this tutorial, please print this page as a reference while you are formatting and partitioning your hard drive. Also before following these instructions, please download the below programs and save them to a cd/dvd so you will have a copy of them and can do the operations in order.
For this tutorial we are going to use a 40 gigabyte Harddrive as a base. (If you have a bigger hard drive, the first three partition's and first three number's will still pertain to you. It is only the last partition number that will be larger. If your harddrive is smaller, you will need to do calculations, please post for instructions)
Step 1
First put the windows cd into the cd/dvd rom drive and boot up. There will be a black screen that will say "press any key to boot from cd", press any key. You will see windows preloading a bunch of files, when it is finished, you will see a window giving you options.
Press Enter to "Setup Windows Now".
Next you will see a window asking you to agree to the EULA. Go ahead and press F8 to agree to the End Users License Agreement.
After you press F8 another window will appear and you will be ready for the next section.
Step 2 Creating The Partitions
Press C on the highlighted disk drive, this is going to create your first partition, your XP partition. This will take you to another window. (Just remember C is for Create if it makes it any easier).
After Pressing C(Create), there will be a window asking how much space you would like to allocate to the partition. Type the following number in the box, 15360. (You're Probably wondering, "where is he getting this number?" Well when you get a 40 gigabyte hard dirve you are not getting 40 gigabytes of hard drive for Windows. Windows recognizes a gigabyte as 1,024 megabyte's, so you will see only about 38 gigabytes on your hard drive. Not to worry, this is normal.)This will be your Operating System partition, your C drive. After entering that number press Enter. This will take you back to the previous window.
Press the down arrow on your keyboard untill you get to the line that says
'Unallocated Space".
Again select the C option to create another partition.
This time you are going to enter the number 1024. This will be your Paging File, your D drive, press Enter.
This will take you back again to the previous window.
Again, press the down arrow untill you get to the line that says
'Unallocated Space".
Press C again, in the box enter this number, 5120. This will be your document and internet explorer temp file partiton, your E drive. Press Enter and return to the previous window.
One last time press your down arrow to select "Unallocated Space".
Press C, then Enter. This is going to be your Program, music and other multi media partiton, your F drive. Press Enter again to return to the previous window.
This time make sure the C drive is highlighted, if not, use your arrow keys to highlight it. Press Enter and you will come upon a window giving you formatting choices. Choose "format the file using the NTFS file system". Do not choose the Fast option as it does not check the harddrive for errors.
Press Enter.
Windows will now begin installing itself onto your C partition. Depending on your hardware it can take up to 60 minute's. During this process you will have to enter the time, time zone, The XP product key, and your keyboard layout, as well as pertinent personal information.
Step 3 Formating Your Partitions
Once you get into your desktop the first thing to do is right click on My Computer, then click on Manage. There will be a window that pops up, click on DISK MANAGEMENT. You will see your partition's now.
You will format them one at a time, right click on your D drive first, and click on format. A box will appear, check the box that says do a fast format, where it asks for the label of the drive type in Page File, and click OK.
Repeat the same proccess for your E drive, naming it My Documents, then your F drive naming it Other or Programs. Close out of Management.
Next right-click on My Computer, click on Properties. A box will open with several tabs, click the Advanced tab. On this tab you will see several sections, locate Performance and click the Settings button.
Next click on the circle next to Adjust For Best Performance.
Next click on the circle next to Custom.
Make a check mark in the boxes that say 1) Use common Tasks in folders.
2)Use visual styles on windows and buttons. You will have the same look as XP without it taking so much ram away from you.
Click Apply
Still in Performance Options, you should see an Advanced tab. Click on the tab and then click on Virtual Memory. Another box will open up showing your drives. Click on the C drive and then select, No paging file, then click Set. Next click on your D drive and select, Custom Size, type in 1024 for both minimum and maximum, then click on Set. Reboot your computer.
Step 4
Once back in Windows install all of the drivers for your devices; Printers, Video Card, etc.
After you install the drivers you will be rebooting into safe mode. (While the computer is booting, repeatedly tap the F8 key until you get a menu. Use your arrow keys to select Safe Mode, and press Enter.) Once in Safe Mode, double click My Computer, right-click on C drive, and click on Properties.
Select the Tools tab. Click on Defragment Now. It may take awhile the first time but it will put all the sytem files in the front before you start installing other programs so this will make windows move a lot more quickly. After defragging is complete, reboot into regular mode.
Step 5
Once Back in Windows, right-click on My Documents, and click on Properties. Press the Move button, you will be asked to select a destination, click on the + next to My Computer, click on your E drive, and press OK. You will be asked if you want to move your documents there, click on Yes.
Before the next step, go to your E drive, and create a New Folder, name it Temporary Internet Files. Next right-click on Internet Explorer, click on Properties. Under Temporary Internet Files, click the Settings tab, you will see a number around 1,080, highlight that box and change it to 80. (This way Internet Explorer does not take up over a gigabyte of your space for temp files.) Now while in the same window press the Move Folder button, click on your E drive, select Temporary Internet Files, click apply. You will be asked to log off, do so. Log back on and now your IE temp files will not cloud Xp's operations.
Next right-click any open space on the desktop and click Properties. Click the Screensaver tab. Click on the Power box, choose the Hybernate tab. Uncheck the box that says Enable Hibernation, (which also takes 511 megabytes of space from you), click apply.
Make sure you have a firewall installed before going online. If you do not have one please go to http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/fil...id,7228,00.asp and install Zone Alarm, you can always change afterwards, it is free and a very good firewall.
Next download CCleaner at http://www.ccleaner.com/ccdownload.asp and install it onto your F Drive. Run it and it will clean all the temp files on your PC. PCHF recommends using it every 3 day's.
Now you can begin reinstalling all of your other software and using your bright shiny new computer. Have fun.
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Making Windows More Productive On Only One Hard Dirve
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