 The magazine of the Melbourne PC User Group Nibbles and bytes Ron Wilby |
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It had to happen and it has. Users are complaining about loading times. Load your word processor? That's a cup-of-coffee task. The high end word processors are so full of features the loading time is now a serious invasion of your working day. Besides that, you may have to load Windows first (another coffee). What if you don't like coffee?
Of course this problem is due to too many features, most of which we don't use or even know about. Have a look at your word processor manual. Do you know what all the features do? I just looked at mine and I don't, even though I'm using it professionally.
My 486 processor is never holding me back, it's all those overweight applications with their hosts of features. Have a look at your word processor manual(s). Do likewise with your database and spreadsheet. How many of those features do you use? How many are you ever likely to use? Not too many in my case. There they are, described by your manual in glowing terms. They cost you money to buy, they take up valuable hard disk space. Very likely you'll be talked into an upgrade when a new version appears--more money and more disk space. Windows 95 too, is likely to produce a few costly upgrades as you change to 32-bit applications.
Solutions? How about a word processor in modular form, so we can buy only the parts we need? That would need some standardisation. No, the answer lies in simpler programs. Remember WordPerfect's LetterPerfect of a few years back. Excellent program, lighter on pocket and hard disk space. Windows Write is another possibility, after some small improvements. Come on, software developers, let's have you!
Upgrade woes
An unsuspected cause of upgrade problems came to my notice the other day. The BIOS. What's that, you say? The BIOS is the absolute necessity for your computer to start up, or boot. The BIOS is a series of instructions on a pre-programmed chip which responds to the first power on of the day. It breathes life into your previously dead computer and gets it ready for DOS to take over operations.
A friend's recent problems alerted me to this. A giant hard disk (1.2 GB) caused it all. Norton Disk Doctor started to show difficulties around the 528 MB mark. We were stumped, so off to Steve at the local computer store, where he soon had it down to a conflict between the aging BIOS and the giant hard disk. The four-year-old BIOS had never heard of disks bigger than 528 MB (had you heard of them four years ago?) and it wasn't going to have anything to do with running one.
Important points here. One, the vital need we all have for good support from our local dealer. Don't worry if he charges a little more. You need him. You'll get caught with a hard one sooner or later. Two, be careful about upgrades. You may have to upgrade more than you think, which, of course, will cost you more than you think.
Hard disk health
So, you've bought a new (and bigger, of course) hard disk. Are you looking after it? Properly feeding it? Partitioning is first. That means using DOS's FDISK to divide up the disk into a number of compartments, called logical drives. They are all part of the one physical hard disk you bought, but each logical drive behaves like a separate hard disk with a different name, such as D:, E:, etc.
The great temptation is to partition into one large logical drive. Saves trouble, but it's wasteful of disk space. A one-byte file uses 16 KB of space on a 540 MB drive, only 2 KB on a 100 MB drive. Be advised that partitioning destroys all data on your disk, so back up before you use FDISK and remember to format each partition before you attempt to use it.
Ron's tips for hard disk happiness
- Partition your large disk into smaller and more manageable logical drives. You may need help for this. Back up before starting.
- Don't try to store everything in the root directory. It's usually limited to 512 files or subdirectories. You can get "disk full" messages when you really have multimegabytes available. Create subdirectories for your programs and data.
- Defragment (optimise) your hard disk about once a month. Use DOS's DEFRAG or the optimiser which comes with your favourite disk utility package. Don't defrag until you've checked your disk with SCANDISK or similar. Don't defrag inside Windows!
- Get the settings for your CMOS from your Setup progran - accessible when booting up - or use MSD (Microsoft Diagnostic), which comes with DOS 6.xx. There have been some doubts cast on MSD, so check that the readings make sense when compared with your hard disk's known data. Better still, use Norton or PC Tools to make a Disaster disk, which will contain the required hard disk information.
- Don't move your PC while it's running. Today's hard disks are more rugged than of old, but still could fail if given the wrong bump at the wrong time.
- Don't count on SCANDISK's surface scan facility. If you're concerned about surface defects, use Spinrite or a similar utility. On the other hand, SCANDISK can successfully repair many problems with damaged files.
That's it for this month. See you next time.
Reprinted from the October 1995 issue of PC Update, the magazine of Melbourne PC User Group, Australia
