NTFS vs FAT32....HELP!

I tried to search, but couldn't find anything topic specific for this. I have an HP a330n which has its own "recovery" partition, which is FAT32(C:\) and the 2 other HDD's(D:\ ; E:\) are NTFS, the OEM HDD came with "120GB" but the recovery partition is 6GB and I only have 106GB left on the main Drive, not that matters... I added a HD(D:\) back in the day which was formatted to NTFS. Should I change the drives to FAT32, I don't have any garbage on my computer and it seems to run slow lately, I usually run a Virus and Spy/Aware but all my trials have ended.. But I dont think I have any problems. All I use this machine for is Internet, and it takes about 10 secs to open Firefox browser, which doesn't seem right to me. Also I have added memory to this machine in the past and brought it up to 712MB, anyone got any suggestions to this Slug? Also I no longer have my "recovery" CD's so I can't format, and when I tried the on disk recovery feature before, it still had all the same files on it that it originally had, and I chose complete restore or what not. Thanks guys!

Message edited by UPSer on 10-30-2007 at 04:11:40 PM

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"All I use this machine for is Internet"
"I usually run a Virus and Spy/Aware but all my trials have ended"
I would suggest that you download a free antivirus program and run a scan, just do a google search there are a lot of them such as
AVG, Avast, ClamWin, Panda just to name a few, but using the internet without an antivirus program is just asking for trouble especialy when there are so many free solutions.

If you had a free trial from Norton this could also be slowing you down. Download this to get rid of it and install one of the free anti-virus programs.
http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPO [...] 3108162039

I use AVG myself, I'm not saying it's the best, but everyone has their favorite.

Message quoted 1 times
Message edited by bobjmoran on 10-30-2007 at 05:02:47 PM

------------------------------ E6600 3.4 GHZ
ASUS P5W DH Deluxe
2GB Gskill F2-6400-CL4D
SAPPHIRE X1950XT 256
Reply to bobjmoran

bobjmoran wrote :

"All I use this machine for is Internet"
"I usually run a Virus and Spy/Aware but all my trials have ended"
I would suggest that you download a free antivirus program and run a scan, just do a google search there are a lot of them such as
AVG, Avast, ClamWin, Panda just to name a few, but using the internet without an antivirus program is just asking for trouble especialy when there are so many free solutions.

That really isn't my main concern, but I appreciate the reply. My main question is, why is my PC so slow when I barely have 5% of Disk Space used and process % is under 10%. Im baffled.

Message quoted 1 times

Reply to UPSer

Well, above all else, we could use a hardware profile in order to have a clearer look into your system.
Second, you said that you added memory into your system up to 768MB, well surprisingly this could be the cause, I mean are you 100% sure that both your memory modules are compatible with the motherboard? O even worse, are compatible between themselves? Maybe they are not working on the same timings, they could be compromising system overall stability, well, you get the picture. Plus you could make a more organized step by step course of action, so that we can understand what really happened, and what you really want. Personally I could barely understand what you said on the first post.

No offenses there, just trying to help.

Message quoted 1 times

Reply to OkamiAmaterasu

Quote :

My main question is, why is my PC so slow when I barely have 5% of Disk Space used...

Okay, I'll bite - is it because it's a Pentium3 800MHz running WinXP SP1 from ~2003?
Lots of HD space does not a fast PC make...
Regards

Reply to the_ogs

Because you probably have a virus! Other than that, defrag your hard drive. You will see no noticable speed difference between FAT32 and NTFS. How many programs do you have running in the background?
go to task manager and look at applications and see what's running,
How many icons are next to your clock?Turn off some of those programs that load at start-up.

------------------------------ E6600 3.4 GHZ
ASUS P5W DH Deluxe
2GB Gskill F2-6400-CL4D
SAPPHIRE X1950XT 256
Reply to bobjmoran

UPSer wrote :

That really isn't my main concern, but I appreciate the reply. My main question is, why is my PC so slow when I barely have 5% of Disk Space used and process % is under 10%. Im baffled.

I would suspect virus activity and/or spyware. Slowness has little to nothing to do with which file system you happen to have set up. So obtain/run a good anti-virus and anti-spyware software. Then defragment your drives (Start/Programs/Accessories...), and see does that help.

Then you should check your startup folder and management console and see what's in there: If you have a lot of stuff running in the background, it can impact performance significantly. If you don't need it running, shut it off and make sure it isn't set up to start itself when you fire up your comp. This can make a significant difference.

The next obvious question is "How Fast Is Your Internet Connection" If your ISP is slow, nothing you can do on your end will improve internet load times.

So you know: Content on the web is getting more complex, with more pictures, graphics which require more computing power, and such. If your comp is getting old, it may well need a little horsepower boost - Processor upgrade, more memory, etc... If it's very old, it may be time to cut bait and replace the thing.

Hope that helps.

Scott

------------------------------ Being requested to remove my siggy implying some people here would receive greater personal benefit from a local Prostitute than from a new GPU in no way, shape, or form changes the aforementioned opinion.
Reply to Scotteq

I'm not sure about slowness. I will say this. Don't convert anything to FAT32. Don't convert the FAT32 recovery partition to NTFS. Leave the partitions alone, they're fine. Besides, if you convert the recovery partition, it may not be usable if you decide to try to "recover" your PC with it.

I think your computer would be slow because you have malware (virus, trojan, worm, spyware, adware, etc.). There are indeed free solutions to keep your system clean, as bobjmoran suggested. Your file systems have nothing to do with this. Perhaps defrag all drives. But I would definitely suggest using a free virus scanner, and Ad-Aware and Spybot as well. Those last two are generally very good at cleaning crap off your system.

Also, go through your system and see if there is anything installed that you've never used, aka manufacturer-preinstalled software. Removing such might help a bit too.

By the way, I'm assuming when you say you have 712MB of RAM, you have Windows XP?

I am currently using a very old system, it's a Pentium 3 / 1.1GHz, 640MB RAM. Firefox takes a bit to open on my system too.

I would suggest using the on-disk system recovery option again, even though it "leaves everything there". Once you've done that, go through and remove any programs you never use. If it comes down to "well, i might possibly maybe use it at some point in the future because it looks cool..." remove it. Remove any "desktop search" systems, any extra "toolbars" from google or whoever else, any "weather channel plugins that simply run in the tray!". All this stuff will bog your system down, 10% usage or not. Also, get rid of any Norton products you have installed. Horrible software.

------------------------------ Phenom II X4 940 (3.6GHz @ 1.52vCore) : Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro : 8GB OCZ DDR2-1066 : EVGA GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 (55nm), 701/1501/1175MHz C/S/M: Asus M3A78-EM 780G mATX Mobo : WD 750GB BE HD, SG 7200.11 1.5TB HD : Corsair 650W PSU
Reply to cpburns

I ALWAYS use NTFS unless on drives that can not use NTFS (like thumb drives)
Backup your data. Download (easy to search for) & run a LOW LEVEL format (all 0's) , partition, reinstall everything while doing a good virus check.
You don't need a recovery CD. Just back up all data to CDs. Then reinstall everything.
Then it's like getting a brand new PC.

Message quoted 1 times

Reply to enewmen

Firefox has gotten to be a bit of a resource hog, have you cleared private data, browsing history, etc.? Surfing the web with all the temp files and the like that are generated really requires frequent defragging, as well. Shoot, if I don't clear the browsing history from the rest of my family, my dual core machine takes forever to open Firefox!

------------------------------ "How can he possibly resist the maddening urge to eradicate history at the mere push of a single button? The beautiful, shiny button? The jolly, candy-like button? Will he hold out, folks? Can he hold out?"
Reply to utaka95

enewmen wrote :

I ALWAYS use NTFS unless on drives that can not use NTFS (like thumb drives)
Backup your data. Download (easy to search for) & run a LOW LEVEL format (all 0's) , partition, reinstall everything while doing a good virus check.
You don't need a recovery CD. Just back up all data to CDs. Then reinstall everything.
Then it's like getting a brand new PC.

can I format without reinstalling OS? I never received an XP install disc... Which prog's would you suggest for this operation? PM me

Message edited by UPSer on 10-30-2007 at 06:51:19 PM

Reply to UPSer

Here are the specs:

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc [...] 065&os=228

The computer is a socket A, 3 generations old. Time for a new computer or converting to Linux.

Message quoted 1 times
Message edited by evongugg on 10-30-2007 at 08:01:49 PM

Reply to evongugg

evongugg wrote :

Here are the specs:

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc [...] 065&os=228

The computer is a socket A, 2 generations old. Time for a new computer or converting to Linux.

Linux eh? Doesn't sound too user friendly to me. I've used it maybe once or twice, don't know if its more friendly now. I remember before it was all commands and what not.

Reply to UPSer

Download an Ubuntu LiveCD or a regular CD. If you have another preference, download a LiveCD of your preference. Boot from the CD. Try it out.
It works good on older hardware. From Windows to Linux is a big step, I admit it.

Reply to evongugg

You can create an install disk with files that are on your computer read this http://www.easydesksoftware.com/recovery.htm. Do a Google search for create XP install disk and you will find other results as well.

Use AVG, Spybot S&D, and Adaware to clean your system and if that doesn't help try creating an install disk and doing a clean install.

------------------------------
It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.
-Aristotle
Reply to ausch30

OkamiAmaterasu wrote :

Well, above all else, we could use a hardware profile in order to have a clearer look into your system.
Second, you said that you added memory into your system up to 768MB, well surprisingly this could be the cause, I mean are you 100% sure that both your memory modules are compatible with the motherboard? O even worse, are compatible between themselves? Maybe they are not working on the same timings, they could be compromising system overall stability, well, you get the picture. Plus you could make a more organized step by step course of action, so that we can understand what really happened, and what you really want. Personally I could barely understand what you said on the first post.

No offenses there, just trying to help.

How can I tell if the memory is working properly? Is it something in the BIOS? The task manager is verifying that there is 768MB of physical memory. HMM..

Reply to UPSer

Download and run memtest, if you can't get into windows you can download a bootable version which you can save to a floppy and run it in DOS and there is a USB flash drive version which also runs in DOS.

http://www.memtest.org/#downiso

Message edited by ausch30 on 11-06-2007 at 10:41:42 PM

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It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.
-Aristotle
Reply to ausch30

Forum Storage : Hard Disks - NTFS vs FAT32....HELP!

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