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computerwriter.com
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Cleaning up your hard drive - part 1 of 2Toronto Star Fast Forward column for June 19/97 Back to White Pages main article index © Copyright, Myles White /, 1997 It isn't officially summer yet (that comes on Saturday), so I still have time to do a spring cleaning column before spring runs out. Let's talk about your computer's hard drive for a moment. As you have no doubt discovered, no matter how large the drive was that came with your computer, data always expands to fill the container and what was once a vast, empty plain stretching as far as the eye can see now resembles downtown Toronto. In short, if you've had it for any appreciable length of time, it's approaching full. It's said that you can fix any problem you have so long as you have enough time and enough money, but the problem is that none of us has enough of either commodity. I'm going to assume for the sake of this exercise that buying some kind of external storage device (e.g., Zip Drive, Jaz Drive, EZ-something or other drive) and/or getting another hard drive are both out of the question. Although, if you have a large hard drive and you don't have at least a streaming tape backup drive, I'm afraid that one of the main recommendations is going to be tedious and use lots of diskettes. Because, no matter what you do later, you're going to want to back up the contents of your drive -- particularly if you're contemplating some of the more radical suggestions to follow next week. You can save yourself time by backing up only the data files you've created -- in other words being prepared to re-install any software applications you have -- but if you've lost the original disks or CD, or haven't created installation disk sets of the software that came pre-installed on the computer, then get ready to back up everything that can't be replaced, just in case you get cursed by a passing wizard. What you'll want to do first, after you've backed up anything critical, is to run the Windows 95 program, ScanDisk, to see if there are any lost clusters on your hard drive. Don't worry for now how they got lost or what's in them. You can examine them later to see if they're anything you need. When Scandisk is finished, and if it found any lost clusters or other problems, you may find anywhere from none to several files in the root folder of the C:\ drive (or any drive on which you've performed the test) with names such as file0001.chk, file0002.chk and so on. Ninety-nine times out of 100, you can delete these files with impunity and you'll have freed up some disk space. The easiest way to create more space is to chuck some other un-needed files. For example, files that generally fall into this category include any with .TMP, .BAK, or .BK! extensions. They may all be housed in your default "TEMP" directory (or folder) -- usually c:\temp -- but they could also be found in a TEMP directory under Windows (i.e., c:\windows\temp). If you have a word processor, spreadsheet, database, drawing program, desktop publishing program and so on, each one could be storing these files in either the TEMP directory or in its own secret location. You could use Windows Explorer to labouriously search your entire hard drive, one pass for each of these file types, but there is an easier way. At least two programs designed to uninstall extra and orphaned files come from Quarterdeck (Cleansweep 95) and Cybermedia (Uninstaller). Without getting into the strengths and weaknesses of each one, both will aid in finding odd file types and do a more or less thorough job of cleaning up software you don't want any more. The most important thing to know about both programs is that they provide all sorts of options to prevent you from damaging your system by removing the wrong files. You can create a compressed backup version of what you're about to remove. It's something experienced users do all the time (because we're experienced, we know we don't know everything and that mistakes can happen). Both will flag files they think may cause you problems if removed. I've never regretted heeding the warning (especially if, when I overrule it, I create a backup first). You could use the Windows 95 uninstaller to get rid of programs you no longer need, if they used the "Install shield" process when they were installed to begin with and if you're sure something won't go wrong. I, for example, used it to uninstall a copy of Microsoft Money 97 I was reviewing. Even though I told it to leave shared files alone, it still clobbered my Internet dialler on its way out (sigh). I've repaired the damage since, but now tend to fall back on Cleansweep to prevent such errant foolishness. If you're using Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator to surf the net, it may amuse you to learn that there are literally megabytes of cached files (including all those advertising banners you never wanted to see again) residing on your hard drive, just in case you ever want to visit one of those sites again. Both programs allow you to set the size of the cache, but IE3.x sets it as a percentage of available drive space, instead of as a precise block of space. Clearing the cache on occasion will free up disk space. Once you've deleted as many files as you can, you have another option. Shareware (software you can get for free and keep using if you decide to pay a nominal licence fee) archiving programs such as PKZip allow you to compress groups of files into the smallest possible space and selectively decompress any files you need later. I, for example, keep all material I've ever written, but everything older than 1997 is consigned to a zipped collection (which I then store off my hard drive, but we said we weren't going to do that). On average, archive compression of a file can reduce its size by half. Database and graphics files may reduce by a factor of eight, while game files, many of which are already compressed, may not shrink much. One of the advantages of newer versions of PKZip (the most current I'm aware of is 2.07g), is that it can zip a large collection of files across multiple floppy disks. When everything is chopped, zipped, sliced and diced, the next thing you'll want to do is to defragment your hard drive, then think about whether to re-partition it and/or to use the Microsoft utility, DriveSpace 3, to artificially increase its capacity. All of these are topics for next week. This document is protected by international copyright. That means you can read it, download it, set a link to it and even print it. However, you must not make copies for your friends, make copies for your class, post it at your Website, send it to someone else's Website, or quote all or any part of it in any other medium for any reason whatsoever unless you ask me first. Okay? |
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