I have a 102 Gig harddrive and I was wondering how much my computer is slowed down by having it with only 10 gigs free, with games, movies and music taking up the majority of the other space?
Well it depends on other factors as well (processor, RAM) but I would say it's probably going much slower than when you first bought it.
http://www.executive.com/coverpage.asp I've been using this for the past week or so. Great program. [Thanks LJ for pointing it out me me in the first place] The program recommends that you have atleast 20% of your disk space available, otherwise your performance will suffer. Even with a 1GB of RAM and a AMD 64 3400+ processor, I only have 3% space available apparently and my performance has been suffering. I keep getting major slow downs at time. I need to install my 120GB HDD soon. -_-
i have a 120 gb hdd plan to upgrade to 200 [/b][/quote] Lucky. I'm also planning to add a 80GB HDD, once I find it.
Is it free?? [/b][/quote] No, but there's a 15-day trial. Plus there's more than one way of obtaining it. :whistle: esaul17 - I have 1GB of RAM and less than 10% of my HDD free, at times, my computer just goes to a complete stop.
Wow. I was wondering, my harddrive is labelled as a 120 GB, but when I go to it's properties it is said to be a 102. Why is it that much smaller? Is my computer just making sure I keep free discspace? Also, I am trying out Norton Speeddisc for Systemworks 2005. Is this any good?
I can't remember exactly, but it's something about partitioning that screws that up. I have less that 5GB of space left. I need to add in my 120GB HDD ASAP.
Hard drive companies use 1000 bytes in a kilobyte, 1000 kilobytes in a megabyte, 1000 megabytes in a gigabyte. They do the math and get the number printed on the box and in the computer specs. The real measurement is 1024 bytes in a kilobyte, 1024 kilobytes in a megabyte, 1024 megabytes in a gigabyte. Thats what operating systems use when they tell you how much space you have. Dividing by the larger number means the number it calculates is smaller than what the hard drive manufacturer got. The reason they get away with using 1000 instead of the real 1024, is because 1000 bytes in a kilobyte, ect, is the generally accepted estimation because its easy math. If a given file is exactly 12,000,000 bytes 12 megabytes is an acceptable estimation. 12,000,000/1000=12,000 kilobytes. 12,000/1000=12 megabytes. In reality, 12,000,000/1024=11,718.75kilobytes, 11,718.75/1024=11.4440918 megabytes. Back when hard drives were very small, the difference between 1000 and 1024 was negligible, just a few kilobytes, so 1000 was used for easy math. Now, with hard drives as big as they are, the difference between 1000 and 1024 means several gigabytes. My hard drive says 200 gigs on the box but ends up being 186.2 gigabytes because of the 1000 and 1024 thing. The hard drive is 200,049,647,616 bytes according to my computer. Divide by 1000 3 times to get it in gigabytes, you've got a 200.04 gig hard drive which they round down to an even 200. Divide it by 1024 3 times, you get 186.2. Now, which number looks better on the box? 200 or 186? It sucks, I know. Also, kilo does mean 1000, not 1024. A kilometer is 1000 meters, not 1024 meters. A kilogram is 1000 grams. So hard drive companies get away with the whole "If kilo means 1000, then a kilobyte is 1000 bytes". Plus, a little space is used up for partitioning, but we're talking about a couple megabytes here. And one more thing that doesnt have anything to do with calculating capacities but is a space waster is the file system. The way most file systems work, is space is given out in whats called clusters; a block of space. Each cluster is 4kilobytes. The problem is, 2 files cannot share a cluster and a cluster cannot be split into multiple portions. What that means, say you have a file that is 8 kilobytes. The file system allocates 2 clusters to hold the 8 kilobytes of data. Now, lets say you have a file that is 9 kilobytes of data. Keeping in mind, clusters are only 4k and only belong to one file, what happens? The computer allocates 3 clusters to the file. 2 clusters are filled up, and the 3rd contains that extra kilobyte of data. The remaining 3 kilobytes don't have anything stored in them, but they're stuck in the cluster and can't be given to another file. 3k is no big deal, but when you're talking about tens of thousands of files, that adds up to quite a bit of space that can't be used. I guess a good analogy would be, say, you and 5 of your friends (6 people total ) want to go somewhere. 2 people have cars that both hold 4 people (3 passengers+driver). 4 people go in one car, 2 people in go in the other. There's still 2 seats left in the other car. It would be more efficent and environment friendly to fit more people in a car to reduce pollution and save gas, but everyone in your group has a seat in a car and you're not going to pick 2 completley random people off the street to fill the other car.
Thanks. So it doesn't matter how much data you have, just as liong as 20% of it is free. So if I had a 100 GB HD and had 20 free it would run as if I had 300GB drive with 60 free? Also, does the 20% rule only apply to the HD with your OS on it, or to all hard drives? Edit: Oh and how is Norton Speedisk? Doube Edit: Will adding a new harddrive actually speed my computer up?
The program I referred to recommends you keep 20% free. Windows on the other hand [as I learned last night] recommends you keep atleast 200MB free otherwise performance starts to degrade. As long as you have 20% free, it should run fine. The more available disk space, the better you system will run probably. [I don't know from experience, so I can't back this statement up...] Never heard of Norton Speedisk.
If I have a drive without windows on it not full will that make my computer run slower? Also, I looked and a had 1.1 x 10^11 bytes on my disc. Dividing by 1024 did bring me to the 102 GB, but dividing my 1000 only gives me 110. What happened to my other 10 Gigs? I heard system restores use them, is that true?
What brand computer? I know HP keeps a ton of software restore (Windows XP installer, ect) on a seperate partition thats hidden. Also, the amount you can fill up your hard drive before performance degrades depends on the amount of RAM. When your memory gets filled, your computer starts using virtual memory-memory that is stored on your hard drive. Hard drives are a lot slower than RAM, so therefore, when virtual memory is used, you notice a slowdown. If you dont have a lot of RAM, your computer will be using mostly virtual memory, and if your hard drive is full, there's no room for virtual memory, so you're completley out of space for memory, virtual or physical, and everything slows down. Yet if you have 8 gigabytes of RAM, you could have just a few megabytes of space left on your hard drive and you'd never notice a performance difference since the OS isn't going to touch virtual memory (unless you manage to fill up 8 gigs of RAM)