Newbie to Win2K Pro.......Got a few questions!

[BMED]

I installed W2k pro as 2nd OS this weekend and I have(many)questions. First, why is my modem "Activity" light on constantly?
2) Should I upgrade to SP1?
3) Are there settings that will speed up things?, ie...virtual memeory and stuff
4)I'll be back for more!!! http://www.speedguide.net/ubb/biggrin.gif

[quickfoot]

2000 is based on NT so many of the things that apply to it apply to windows 2000.

On the modem light are you talking dialup modem, local area connection light? or something else, also are these lights on the actual modem or on your OS.

As far as speeding stuff up remove anything you don't need, set your virtual memory manually that way windows doesn't have to dynamically increase it.

You can turn off a few things like the menu fade in to gain display performance.

In general if you don't need a feature turn it off and performance will increase.

Don't compress your hard disks if you don't need to because it is a trade off for performance.

Make sure you defrag at least once every 2 weeks (more if you are a heavy user and download a lot of things).

There are a lot of sites out there with windows 2000 performance tips, you might try doing a search on metacrawler or yahoo.com

Unless you have a good reason not to it is a good idea to run the service pack, make sure you read the notes first.

------------------
Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer

[This message has been edited by quickfoot (edited 12-04-2000).]

[glc1]

Originally posted by quickfoot:
Make sure you defrag at least once every 2 weeks (more if you are a heavy user and download a lot of things).Does anyone do this? I can't remember the last time a defrag my hard disk. It's probably been more than a year. http://www.speedguide.net/ubb/biggrin.gif LOL

[quickfoot]

It depends on your FS

If you run a good OS like FreeBSD or Linux the need to defrag is actually almost completely removed.

If you run something bloated like 95/98/ME and use a fat or fat32 file system then its needed.

Microsoft claims you don't need to defrat an NTFS drive however they include a defrag utility with win2k, go figure http://www.speedguide.net/ubb/smile.gif

[glc1]

Originally posted by quickfoot:
Microsoft claims you don't need to defrat an NTFS drive however they include a defrag utility with win2k, go figure Maybe they figure most will use FAT32?



[This message has been edited by glc1 (edited 12-04-2000).]

[quickfoot]

The disk defrag utility is diskeeper which was originally designed to defrag nt 4 ntfs partitions.

And win2k limits puts a limit on the size of fat32 partition you can create with win2k (although it can read any size)

It is said this is so you will be forced to use NTFS on large drives or drive combinations (NTFS makes more sense anyway unless you are dual booting of course).

In the end I doubt even microsoft knows what microsoft is thinking.

[BMED]

Thanks for the quick response!

1) Modem light solved, reset modem and all is well.

2) Fresh install, not much stuff loaded. I don't what to eliminate something I need so I'll wait on this one.

3) Menu fade sucks, got rid of that right away!

4) Defrag claims that it is O.K., but I will defrag anyway.

5) Oh yeah! Running NTFS with this OS, seems appropriate.

6) I'll check out the other sites for advice, I figured that I would start with the best first.... http://www.speedguide.net/ubb/biggrin.gif

7) If I run the service pack and things go to sh*t, then I will just reformat and reinstall.

Thanks again, I'll be back for more from the pro's from this site.....later for now! BMED

BTW, I'm on cable, modem had a brain fart or something???????

[This message has been edited by BMED (edited 12-04-2000).]

[ssjDoh]

Originally posted by glc1:
Originally posted by quickfoot:
Make sure you defrag at least once every 2 weeks (more if you are a heavy user and download a lot of things).Does anyone do this? I can't remember the last time a defrag my hard disk. It's probably been more than a year. http://www.speedguide.net/ubb/biggrin.gif LOL



I defrag monthly.

[drdoug99]

about defreagging, i would usually do it like once a month, but i have nuts&bolts 98 from McAfee, and the DiskTune feature (defrag) literally takes like 8 hours to do. whearas the MS defrag takes maybe 2hrs.....(actually i forget, i always do N&B defrag) but it's a hella long time. Why is that? Of course, when I do defreag, i wait until 99.9 fragmentation, and do the settings for total optimization, but still, that seems too long. Any thoughts?

[twwabw]

FWIW, I agree with Quickfoot. MS always talked out of both sides of their mouth w/NT- no, you don't need to defrag NTFS. Well, maybe- Well, you could, but you don't have to-.... anyway you get the idea.

The most important performance hit I've found as it relates to NT/2000 fragmentation and configuration, is the page file. This is the NT version of the swap file. Since it is more dynamic than win386.swp, and such an integral part of the OS, it is important to tune it correctly for performance. First and foremost, if you have a multi disk setup, get a portion of the file onto the second disk. Performance gains are significant if you put a copy onto a disk that doesn't contain the OS files. But, you have should leave the original on the boot partition. Sounds dumb, but NT/2000 will use the 2nd file on the other disk instead of the boot partition version automatically. The purpose of the intact orignal is that the OS will not capture a memory dump if a pagefile is not on the boot partition. Also, never place a page file on a stripe set- big performance hit.

And to add insult to injury, even though MS admits the page file should be defragged, MS defrag will not touch it! You literally have to resize (or actually recreate) the pagefile, which will then be unfragmented as it is new. Oh brother.

But, I have some NT workstations that are used heavily by engineering and accouting staff, that have NEVER been defragged, and still work great.

The debate rages on.....

Tim

[BMED]

UPDATE............I have been running the SG tweaks for W2k and they Rock! I have searched around for others and so far none better than SG. Web browsing is the fastest I have ever seen, D/Ling is par for the course. Compatability with 98se on the other partition is my concern now, 98se is locking up once in a while now????? Well I'll keep working on it and post back later......until then, BMED