Windows® 98 Unleashed

Optimizing Disk Access

Memory and hard disk access are the “Twin Towers” of Windows 98 performance. Memory, as you've just seen, is where you spend most of your productive computer life. However, keeping your hard disk tuned and optimized benefits three areas:

Storage: Given a finite amount of hard disk space, you want to optimize not only the amount of data that can be stored, but also how the data is stored.

Program loading: Your applications are started from the hard disk, so a fast, efficient disk will load programs more quickly.

Paging and caching: Windows 98 uses dynamic paging files and caching, so a well-tuned disk will increase performance in these crucial areas.

The next few sections take you through various techniques for optimizing ...