2nd HD setup

[Captain Marvel]

My second hard drive has a recycle bin,swap file and 5 other files.THe OS is one HD #1. Should they be there? Is this the ideal setup. Also when I use Shift...delete to delete my video files when I'm through with them it still takes a while to defrag it seems mostly just because the swap file bloated and pushed all the other files out of the way. If I set a permanent swap file size will this speed up defrag and if I do what should I make it on my celeron 450 w/ 128 mb ram? Any tips would be appreciated.

[DrMordrid]

Definitely put the swapfile on the boot drive. This will prevent the second drive unaffected by swapfile hiccups. The second drive is also where you should assign directories for your Windows TEMP, TMP and any video editor temporary files.

As for the size I use a fixed 256 meg swapfile and haven't had any problems with it. Yes it does speed up swapfile writes as it doesn't have to be resized.

Dr. Mordrid

[Brian Ellis]

IMHO, this is what you should do for best performance.

Disk #1:
Partition 1 (C: ) OS and admin functions, testing and so on, generally about 1 - 1,5 Gb,
Partition 2 (E: ) Fixed size swap file, generally as small as you can set it, typically 200-400 Mb
Partition 3 (F: ) All application software and optionally data other than video. If you prefer, you could put data except video on a 4th partition, if you prefer to separate them from your apps, e.g. for backing up.
Disk #1 should be on your IDE 0 port and set as master drive.

Disk #2 Normally 1 partition (D: ) and reserved ONLY for your video files.
Disk #2 should be on your IDE 1 port and set as master drive.

To prevent the problems you mentions about defragging your apparently empty video partition (this is probably because there is a hidden recycle bin on the partition), I suggest that when you wish clear the partition, you do a full format. This will take less time than a defrag and releases all the space pinched by the recycle bin. If you have the fixed swap file on its own partition, reserved for this and this alone, you will never need to defrag it.

------------------
Brian (the terrible)



[This message has been edited by Brian Ellis (edited 13 December 1999).]

[Captain Marvel]

Thanks for the replies Brian & Doc.
I guess what my problem is.. I dont know how my swap file got on the D: (2nd) hard drive. I didnt put it there. As a matter of fact I didn't know Windows would find it there and even work.. I guess I can drag & drop the swap file back to C:. Where does it go? any where on the C: drive or in a windows folder? Also there is a recycle bin on the second hard drive and its not hidden.I really dont need the recycle bin on the (2nd) HD as I usually shift/delete stuff.I dont know how it got there, I think it was on there from the moment I installed the drive. I thought the recycle bin was a part of windows. Windows is on the first drive and the second drive is a capture drive. Does windows do this when you install a second drive? As far as the slow defrag on an empty drive goes it's because as the swap file grows it pushes these files out of the way and they have to be moved back again by defrag(well thats what it looks like on Norton speed disk)The other files that were on this HD when I installed it are Command, Image.dat, Image.idx, Io.sys, MSdos.sys .If I remeber correctly I think the drive installation program asked me if I wanted to install Dos tools or something like that.the 2nd HD is a MAxtor diamondmax plus 20.4. Maybe thats where they came from. Should these files be on my (2nd)Capture drive. I do have them as masters on seperate headers already.

[This message has been edited by Captain Marvel (edited 13 December 1999).]

[SteveR]

You can tell Windows where to put the swapfile by going to Control Panel>System>Performance>Virtual Memory

You can disable use of the Recycle Bin on a drive by right-clicking on it and selecting Properties. In the global settings make sure you have the setting for managing the Recycle Bin for each drive individually, then for the drive in question choose the settings you want to use.