Speed reduction with Win2000/XP?

Jill,

Windows 2000/XP work best with 256MB of RAM, but you probably wouldn't notice
the difference.

Just be aware that problems could arise if you convert from using the 98 FAT32
that XP can use to using NTFS that Win2000 uses and XP can be converted to use.

Fixing Sluggish XP Performance

An extract from one of Scot Finnie's newsletters -
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-- QUESTION: I am running XP Professional on a Pentium 4 Dell with Preinstalled
XP Pro. My applications include Office XP, IE 6, and MSN Explorer. My hard
drive's file system is NTFS. Performance is sluggish. What services should I
turn off to make the machine more responsive? -- Peter Luchansky ANSWER:
Because you have NTFS, I would first suspect that your performance issues are
related to small NTFS cluster sizes on your hard drive. When a hard drive that
was previously formatted with DOS tools (Fdisk and Format, creating FAT16 or
FAT32 partitions) is converted to NTFS, there is frequently a problem that
causes a tiny 512-byte cluster size under NTFS. That's the smallest cluster
size NTFS allows. I won't go into a long explanation, but it's also the slowest
cluster size. The solution is to convert the cluster sizes to at least 4K.
Many, many people have reported that doing so solved their performance problems
completely. Microsoft is aware of the problem, but really hasn't done much
about it. It's also not warning people not to convert to NTFS on Windows 9x
upgrades, which routinely result in 512-byte cluster sizes. This isn't just a
Windows XP problem, either. Windows 2000 users face the same issue. It's also
not just a problem for people who've upgraded to Windows XP and then converted
to NTFS either. Even some new PCs -- including name brand models (especially in
the early going right after Windows XP shipped) -- had this problem. The
DOS-based software tools some PC makers use to image new hard drives are the
culprit. If your new PC was purchased recently from a local system integrator,
for example, you could have this problem. Most major PC makers have resolved
this problem (on PCs sold in 2002), though. So far I have been unable to come
up with a reliable solution that doesn't require the use of a third-party
disk-partitioning utility. So the one I recommend is Paragon Partition Manager.
This product was developed by Russian programmers for the European market. You
can buy it on the Internet for about $40. What makes it different from most
other disk-partitioning utilities is that it can dynamically convert cluster
sizes under NTFS. The following article in Scot's Newsletter describes where to
get Paragon and tells you how to use it to solve the 512-byte problem:
# Before you rush off and buy
Paragon, though, use the instructions on this page to find out whether you have
the 512-byte cluster size: # If
your cluster size isn't less than 4K, then this isn't your problem. If you
already own PowerQuest's PartitionManager, you should read these instructions.
# While they don't work for
everyone, they could save you the cost of the Paragon product. Finally, there
are other disk partitioning utilities -- some of them available for free --
that may also do the job. I have not tested those products. But I wanted to let
you know they existed if you want to do your own research. I have personally
solved the cluster-size problem with both the Paragon and PowerQuest products.
--S.F.

Eric,

PC Buyer Beware!

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