Computer expert question

[Crazy440]

While doing my weekly maintenance, on my puter, I noticed, compress drive and adjust free space.  I read the  explanation, but, it was over my head.  Would someone explain these functions to me?  Is this something I should think about doing?  Or, is it better left, to someone that knows what they are doing?
(Now my head hurts)  :-)

Crazy

[mikepmcs]

compressing a drive shouldn't be needed if you are a normal user(not recommended for guys like you and me), but a defrag(what you are calling adjust free space, i think) won't harm anything, it just moves everything to a more sync'd order and might speed your computer up a little by repositioning files and stuff and allowing comp to recognize and react a little faster when booting or locating files.  adjusting free space can't hurt but it might take a long time to do, like overnight in some cases.
i am not a computer expert, but i did stay at a holiday inn express last night.

[GTX]

It's always a good idea to run defrag and other system tools when you are running your weekly ( or less) virus scanning.
You ARE running a full system scan at least once a week aren't you? I run mine at about 3:00 am on Wed and Sunday when my system is not in use and do a full scan across the network on all drives and machines.  We do it on Sunday only at work where takes hours to do on 500 machines.
I would avoid compression unless you fully understand it since it can make some programs not work properly.  It's supposed to be a good thing and even though it's gotten better we've always found that it sucks and we don't use it.

[Crazy440]

I do a weekly defrag, full virus scan and a complete scan of my hard drives plus a spybot search,every Sunday.  Now, when I click on Drive space in my system tools folder, then click on drive, in the drop down menu is:
1. Compress drive
2. Decompress drive
3. adjust free space
That is the adjust free space that I'm asking about.
Good to know, that I should stay away from trying to compress the drive. Hell, I'm lucky to kow where the start button is.  :-)
Thanks

Crazy

[Doc74]

Crazy what operating system are you running? Windows XP ? If you have your hardrive or C partition in NTFS instead of fat32, you wouldn't need to defrag.
Go to start>settings>contorl panel>system . Under the 'general' tab, what does it say under system and under computer ?

In windows explorer right click the C drive and click properties, check what it says next to file system.NTFS or FAT32

[Crazy440]

Hey Doc
I'm cheap, still running 98 Second Edition.  FAT32 is where it's set.  Whatever that means.

Crazy

[Doc74]

Hey Doc
I'm cheap, still running 98 Second Edition.  FAT32 is where it's set.  Whatever that means.

Crazy

In short...you gotta defrag   
Once a week is good, you don't want it dragging too long because it would take ages to defrag and no touching the puter until it's done.
If your puter can take it I do recomment an upgrade to XP but if 98 works for you then you don't need to change anything.A system check once a week is just fine.

[volk68]

Don't ever tell the computer to "free up" space automatically, I have had them absolutely destroy the hard drive during that function.  It is better to go through manually and delete what you don't need, and then defragment.  Like Doc said, if you are running Win 2k or XP, make sure you format your drives as NTFS before you start using them...it does a much better job of keeping your drive healthy and streamlined.  Of course, you could always get a new Mac with the Intel Core Duo, which would allow you to run the superior Mac OS with its excellent file system and relatively non-existant need for anti-virus software...plus, you can install and run Windows XP on it too. 

If you want to go really geeky, you will find Linux has a great filesystem and runs very clean, but the geek factor for daily use is pretty high 

[GTX]

NTFS is where you wanna be except with '98 obviously.
When I used to run NT I would make a fat partition and dual boot just for the old gaming like Doom but that was the old days!
I'd go to XP if you can and convert to NTFS.
It's best to begin with NTFS although you can convert after the fact but remember that once you go to NTFS you can't go back to Fat but I doubt you would want to.

I still run a couple machines with '98 on them. 98b was a fairly solid platform after tweaking. XP still needs a bit of tweaking though imo.

[Crazy440]

Thanks everyone for all the info.  I just read the following article on NTFS.  Thought I'd try to learn something.  All I learned was, I'll just be happy with what I have and leave the other stuff to those that know what they are doing.
http://www.digit-life.com/articles/ntfs/
Now, I think I'll go work on the Lincoln flat head, that I'm building for a bud. At least I wont feel like a dumb a**. AND TAKE A COUPLE OF ASPIRIN FOR THIS HEAD ACHE.   

Crazy