Efficient Use of Large Hard Drives 
by Durand C. 'Randy' Waters

However, with the PC Alamode having different themes in most issues, this review is being put off until the July issue. Hopefully, that will give McAfee enough time to correct the problems their program’s uninstall cause the Windows 95 Operating System. My interim recommendation is not to use the WebScan program (what they call their Internet protection program) until you hear these problems have been corrected. I will not make you wait until July, if things are corrected! 

 Well, there are only 163 words in the column to this point, so I had better decide to cover something else. Writing a regular, monthly column is a feast or famine experience. Last month, the HOAXES article originally ran 2,312 words, which was much more than needed. Experiences make the best articles and the past week or so have given me some good ones. 

Back in the June 1996 issue, in Vade Forrester’s NewsScan column, there was a box on “DOS and Windows 95 File Storage Inefficiency.” Like many of you, I followed his estimate and found I was wasting 40% of the space on my 2.0 GigaByte (GB) hard drive by having it in a single partition. I was not too happy about this, but since I was only using half of the drive, I was not too concerned. 

 As time passed and I added more and more files to support Netscape Navigator, Internet Explorer and the various program upgrades that come out during an average year, less and less space was available. 

Not wanting to give up on the potential 804.8 MegaBytes (MB) that was being wasted by the large cluster size [32 KiloBytes (KB)] and have to get another hard drive for $ 200.00 or more, I let it be know that Partition Magic would be an appreciated birthday gift. My younger son took the hint and I was all set: TO START PLANNING! 

 I started the program a couple of times, to get an idea off how it worked and read what I felt were the appropriate parts of the documentation Then I sought the expert advise of Vade Forrester to make sure I understood how things were really going to work. It was worse than I thought. I had decided that four 503.0 MB partitions, reducing the cluster size to 8 KBs would be the best solution, reducing my “space waste” by an approximate 30 %. 

The “catch” is that in a Windows 95 system, the best approach is to uninstall/remove all the files that will not be on the primary partition (the c:\ drive). Also, since the installation of programs adds files to the c:\windows directory and lines of instructions to the win.ini, system.ini and regedit.exe files, you need to leave some space for “growth”! 

 Once I uninstalled all the programs that had a listing in the Control Panel’s Add/Remove Program’s Install/Uninstall tab or had an Uninstall icon or feature, there were still some programs left that just had to be deleted from the hard drive. These presented some problems that can just be ignored or dealt with, carefully. I will discuss this later in this column. 

 The important thing to do is make sure you have the original diskettes or cd-roms to reinstall the programs that were removed. If the files are ones you have downloaded from an Internet source, make sure you have the original and all the upgrades available, too. Some “upgrades” will not install unless you have the previous version of the program. 

 A good example is MS-DOS. Versions 6.22, 6.2, 6.0 and 5.0 could all be upgrades and version 4.01 was the original needed. Microsoft Bookshelf is another one. Many programs require the software to be on the computer or for you to insert the initial diskette of the previous version. It pays to keep the originals of your software, no matter what format you received it. 

 There were over 279 MBs of data that could be moved anywhere, but it and my “basic” Windows 95 files took up about 719 MBs of files. 

First I tried to Resize the c:\ drive from 2,012 to 1,006.0 MBs and Create d:\ and e:\ drives to 503.0 MBs each After moving my data files to the e:\ drive, I went back to the Resizing c:\ back to 503.0 MBs and then tried to Create another 503.0 drive. All I kept getting was a Hidden drive of 0.1 MBs and the remainder as free space. The trick is you have to Create all the drives at the same time. 

 As you may remember from my October 1996 column, I feel having up-to-date backups is very important. As the Partition Magic manual recommended, I did I complete backup of my system before starting, just incase something went wrong. I did another backup of my data files before Resizing the c:\ drive back to 2,012.0 MBs, which deleted all the new drives and any files that may have been on them. Now I had only 341 MBs on the hard drive and could Resize C:\ and Create D:\, E:\, and F:, all to approximately 503.0 MBs. 

This time it worked just fine! First I restored the 279 MBs of data from the tape and now I am on my way to reinstalling all the software that I had to remove. You might ask why I do not just restore it from my last “complete” backup. This would be easy, but neither the Windows 95 Registry nor any of the “ini” listed four paragraphs above would have been updated, plus there would probably be error messages that it could not find the file on the drive (D:\, E:\ or F:\) to which it was eventually restored. 

 Remember that I told you above that “This presented some problems that can just be ignored or delt with, carefully”. Well, those programs that do not have an uninstall program or were not registered in the Windows 95 Control Panel’s Add/Remove Program’s Install/Uninstall tab have probably left all sorts of “information” in the win.ini, system.ini and Windows 95 Registry file. 

THE ADVICE I GIVE HERE IS ONLY FOR THE STOUT OF HEART AND VERY COURAGEOUS WINDOWS 95 USER! 

 The “ini” files can be checked and edited using the System Editor or Notepad. Instead of removing lines, put a “REM<space>“ or “;;<space>“ in front of them and see if there are problems with starting your system or various programs after the changes take effect (the next time the computer is started). If there is a problem, you can just remove whichever remarking symbols you used and the problem should be solved. 

 The Windows 95 Registry file is another situation. Before you use Regedit.exe (the program used make changes and hold the information), I would copy the “regedit.exe” file to “regedit.scr” to have a backup, JUST IN CASE! 

As long as you stick to using its menu selections (or associated keyboard shortcuts), you should be all right. 

 Basically, these are the Edit Menu (Alt+E) and its Find (Ctrl+F), Find Next (F3) and Modify (this is an Edit Menu selection added when you have found what you are searching for) and Delete (Del) selections. 

As always, try to only make changes regarding one program at a time. It is easier to reverse mistakes that way. In this case, that usually means reinstalling the software. 

 As usual, keeping your computer “fit and trim” means a good deal of thought and research on your part. There are two ways to avoid this problem. The first is to order your computer partitioned in 500 MB drives. The second is to wait until the Microsoft Win95 OEM Service Release 2 is available from your computer manufacturer. This option, of course, is only available on new computers, so do not expect an upgrade for this to be available from Microsoft. 

 There you have it in 1,355 words. Remember, no one else is as interested in your computer system as you are. It is in your best interest to know as much as possible to keep it up and running. If you do not, it will either cost you the big bucks to repair it or buy an new one and trade ins are the exception!