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JimmiG

Totally compressing FS2004 works wonders and much smoother.

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>How does one find out if their version of Windows XP Home, is>NFTS?>>Thanks,>>DonaldSNo problem. Go to MY COMPUTER. Then right-click on a hard drive partition (C: for instance), then click on PROPERTIES on the pop up that comes up.On that information it should say, "File System: FAT32" or "File System: NTFS"

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Guest

File compression reduces hard disk access NTFS supports file compression. That is

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Guest wathomas777

The skinny on compression and performance hits.This thread has gotten a bit convoluted so I will try to explain the theory and reasoning.1. NTFS is an acronym for NT File System. It is only available on NT 4.0 machines, Windows 2000 and Windows XP. Windows 98 and Windows ME do not support NTFS. 2. NTFS has a form of compression that is much more reliable. It is file based instead of volume based. The advantages to this is that you can compress individual directories. This makes NTFS file compression much more flexible and resiliant to possible failure. NTFS does take more overhead than FAT or FAT32 and thus compression and NTFS often will cause a performance hit. (More on that later)3. Although 98 and ME have disk compression, it is based on earlier "stacker" and "drivespace" based type of compressions schemes. These compression schemes compress an entire volume (drive). This can be scary, because the whole disk is saved as one continous file. The compression software would uncompress and recompress on the fly. Because of the nature of having the entire volume compressed, it was fairly risky. If the "compressed volume" ever has an "error" it is very possible to loose the whole drive. Thus, as Hard Drives started getting cheaper, this form of compression fell out of favor due to the risk not being worth the payoff. Not to mention the performance risk.4. Although NTFS file compression was more reliable, (due to the ability to only compress individual files or folders), the CPU and memory hits taken to decompress files would outweigh the extra time needed to access and read the larger file. Thus the common theory of having "uncompressed files = better performance" was born.5. Recent advances in processor and memory speeds, have laid waste to the above theory. With higher processor speeds (greater that 1.5 Ghz, and larger memory pools, (which also run faster), it is now possible that the CPU can actually read and decompress FASTER than the HD can read a fully uncompressed file.So I hope I have explained this properly. On faster CPU's of today, most of the time (especially with LARGE FILES that are not already significantly compressed) compression can actually enhance performance as well as save disk space. Though it defies conventional wisdom, the speed of today's processors have been ramping up much faster than HD speed, so it actually makes sense.Wow. Save Disk Space and get better performance. Is this great or what????Another reason go dump Win98 and ME and go with XP.

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>The article is question states that todays modern CPU's have>more power therefore more spare cycles in which to>compress/decompress data on the fly, OK, run FS2004 whats your>CPU utilizetion?, 100% I bet, so where are the extra cycles>gonna come from?.>>LOL>>Dan.Well now hold on just a second. Don't "tee off" too quickly. You've assumed that your are using more CPU cycles for decompression then without. You'd be right. However, that's only half the story in this case.Whether this idea is effective or not boils down to whether the CPU cycles that are lost during "decompression" are compensated for by significantly less CPU cycles spent on I/O.

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Welp I seen no diff by compressing good or bad but I did save an extra gig of space so it will stay that way.Neat tip.See you in the fence...CYYZ

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Guest cwright

Tim, I don't think that's necessarily true for all systems. My old machine was an 800 Mhz P3 with an ancient GeForce 1. And yet it ran perfectly smoothly with surprisingly good framerates. Ironically my new machine does have a minor and rather strange jerking problem.... Best regards, Chris

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Guest BobL

When I tried to compress, the option wasn't available in the .../properties section of the FS9 folder. I assume it's not available because it is FAT32. (Windows XP Pro BTW...).Can the file system be changed to NTFS without a format/reinstall. If so, how is it done?BobL

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Guest Colin_Francis

Hi all. It's not snake oil but I should have gone into more detail. Firstly use XP or other NT based OS. Secondly use NTFS file format, forget FAT.Thirdly, most important, forget the MS defragger and buy O&O Defrag software. It's not cheap but does work. The MS built-in defragger doesn't. (No I have no commercial interest in this product)I bought mine from pcaviator.com.au after reading their hints on optimising fs2002. I also run O&O Clevercache Pro, as recommended by pcaviator.I get framerates of 25-35 over Megascenery with the following rig:P4 2gigGeforce 3 128meg512 meg SDRAMIt was new in March 02.With default scenery it's 5fs less.My FS9 settings:Terrain mesh 100%terrain texture highLand only detailWater detail lowScenery density extremely denseNo autogenNo grpound shadows but with sun and lens effects.No special effects1280x1024x32Unlimited frameratesRender to texture and T&L enabledNo AASTrilinear filteringMipmapping x83 lightsMassive global textures.Dawn/dusk textures and extended landscape enabledLook I'm no guru, just followed the pcaviator tips and then tweaked a little. Also don't go near cities much. My images are photo quality though.good luck

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yes you must format the disk partition to NTFS, otherwise it will not be formatted to the NTFS specifications. No need for any re-install unless you have to overwrite your WEinXP installation, which should be avoidable with the creation of a new partition (?).I selected the compression option before formatting and as such when I transferred a copy of FS9 to that partition, it becam a compressed file automatically. Instead of 4,21G I was seeing 2,8 or something... It does seem to make a difference when you encounter a new formation of clouds, it holds its fps better, or so it "seems".Allen'

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Guest Enzoblue

Babua, is the fact that a jpeg loads faster than a bitmap snake oil? Jpeg is a type of compression.

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Guest C17SimGuy

Hi all,I just needed some clarifications since I want to try this tweak and I just recently upgraded my OS. I have WinXP Pro with an XP1800+, 512M PC2100, and an 80 Gig WD HDD with 8MB seek cache. The HDD is partitioned into a 10G and 70G with the 70G being the FS2004 disk. As of now, all are FAT32 format. Unfortunately for me, I have several programs that require FAT32 to operate that are business related. (Have used them with Windows98SE for the past 2 years.) These are all windows programs located on the 10G OS/Program disk. Now for my questions:1) Can I convert the FS drive to NTFS from FAT32 without a complete format of that drive? FS2004 is already up to 18Gs and it will take me too much time to reinstall everything. 2) If I do successfully convert to NTFS on that drive, does it matter that the OS is on a FAT32 drive? (I don't think it should, right?) 3) Does anyone know if any addons will NOT work with NTFS? 4) Does Norton Utilities 2003 have a adequate defragging program compared to MS?Thanks for any input. . .I really look forward to trying this out!regards,drew

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>When I tried to compress, the option wasn't available in the>.../properties section of the FS9 folder. I assume it's not>available because it is FAT32. (Windows XP Pro BTW...).>>Can the file system be changed to NTFS without a>format/reinstall. If so, how is it done?>>BobLHey Bob,Yes you can do it without data loss, I do it all the time for my clients. It's a very simple process in Windows XP.For a step through of how to do it go here:http://aumha.org/win5/a/ntfscvt.phpHope this helps. If you need help feel free to PM me.

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