FS2002 & Norton

[Guest Squitters]

Hi all :-waveAnyone with FS2002 and Norton Utilities use the 'move folder to frontof drive' option, notice any improvement or is it necessary at all?thanks for any info :-)Steve

[Cruachan 705]

Hi Steve,I've been a staunch NU supporter for many a year and currently use NU 2002 with XP Home.In answer to your question I don't think it really matters so long as you allow Norton to monitor your program usage.The relevant file, I think, is NOPDB.exe which, I am guessing, stands for Norton Programs Database. Certainly this executable runs in the background under an XP installation and when you look at its properties it is linked to Norton Speed Disk. I mention this because you need to padlock it to prevent it from being closed if you are, like me, in the habit of using EndItAll prior to starting FS2002.Norton monitors frequently used programs and will automatically move them to the fastest areas of the HD for speedier access when you defragment using Speed Disk. In fact, I believe Windows XP does a similar job but can take an age to complete. I have never used Windows defragmenter as I trust Norton so completely.One caveat, you do need to use Speed Disk at fairly regular intervals for optimum efficiency. I found that it took two or three weeks before I really noticed an improvement in loading speeds while using FS2002.I generally run Speed Disk once the degree of defragmentation drops towards 95%. WindowsXP is on a 5Gig partition and I have diverted most applications from saving data/temporary files on this partition. Also, the bulk of the paging file (virtual memory or swap file) has been repositioned on a second HD in my system. The upshot of doing this is the C partition takes much longer to defragment.Hope this is of some help to you.Mike :-wave

[Guest Squitters]

Hi Mike :-)Thanks for the info :-) glad you mentioned the Enditall and Nortonnever thought of that ;-) I use the Speed Disk/Swap file optimizer on regular basis and did notice an improvement when FS2002 is running compared to the standard method.One thing I must do is sort out my partitions in a better way 1 40 gig drive with 2 parts, no good at all I would have thought! my simwill expand rapidly with the next sections of the Visualflight secenery soon to be released, a large amount of data indeed :-eekI guess the best way to do this is start from scratch, do the partitions, re load OS etc, not very sure about Partition Magic andbesides this cash could go to the VFR scenery! thanks again for the info Mike, most helpful ;-)bestSteve :-wave

[Cruachan 705]

Hi Steve,I used Partition Magic version 7.0 when I was fiddling around with the size of the C partition. Works great and completely compatible with NTFS.I have 2 HDs:1 x 60Gig Partitioned as C and D drives1 x 40Gig One large partition'C' Partition houses Windows XP Home'D' Partition has all my flight sim related software plus various applications and programs I regard as being permanent and regularly in use.'E Drive' houses all my data, temp files, backups, archives, XP Pagefile and 'transient software'. It also carries weighty installations like Visual Flight's VFR Photographic Scenery for East and SE England.Glad to have been of some help.Cheers!Mike :-wave

[Guest]

I just got Version 8 of Partition Magic and it worked like a charm.Real nice to be able to partition on the fly so to speak.

[Hakkie 0]

@Mike: I would suggest to use multiple operating system partitions. I also have 2 disks, one 80GB one 60GB. The first disk is divided into 3 parts for housing each of the OS's. The second disk is used for my personal datafiles and capturing/editing DV-video. During PC boot BootMagic let's me choose which partition to boot from. Partition 1 FS2002 related only. Partition 2 regular applications (Office etc etc). Partition 3 for videoediting (Pinnacle DV500). This way you in fact create 3 pc's each optimized for their particular usage.