totally FLY unrelated, but might be interesting....

[Guest tonyc]

As windows98 became increasingly slower everytime I booted, I was reluctant to reinstall it because of my FLY2 perfect set up with all the add ons and anything else that had accumulated up to that point. Yet, I knew that sooner or later I would have to do something about it. I didn't have a backup, so a hard disk failure was also on my mind. After careful analysis of my situation, I decided that a second hard drive would be preferable to a cd-write( I support all vendors and I was never good at keeping track of my floppies). I knew that with a second hard drive I would have the redundancy as well as a clutter free desk, without all those cd disks. So I did it. I installed a brand new hard drive and made it my primary drive. Here I was able to to install Windows98 from scratch and, at the same time, start installing my favorite applications, knowing that whatever I needed would still be on my second hard drive. It's making me feel that I've got the best of both worlds now. Here's my question: should I use the second disk strictly as a back up for those programs that I don't want to lose( of course I would have a similar folder in my primary drive as well, in case one fails), or try out GHOST, a Norton program that enables one to have an exact copy,including the operating system, on the second drive. This way, whenever something goes wrong, I could quickly retreive the "earlier" version before "imaging" to get back to where I was before the problem. I want some discussion, since I know that my FLYing buddies are faced with a similar dilemma.tony

[RandallR 446]

Tony,I guess I've got too much stuff going on in my system - I've got 2 drives plus a burner. The second drive provided a backup for a while, then I burned my Fly! setups to CD and removed the backup copies to open up more space on both drives.That Norton utility sounds worth a try - you'll need someone who has had experience with it responding on that point.Having your second drive do more than just be a backup is important. For instance, if it is faster than your boot drive, you would want to move the swap file to it to give your PC better performance. It's also I nice place to put large sceneries and give you better loading when flying.

[Guest tonyc]

Hey Randall,Explain why the second drive is faster for scenery and swap files. It sounds interesting. thanks.tony

[RandallR 446]

Tony,Access of the swap file can really affect performance - especially in Win98. There are several considerations for enhancing its performance:1. Speed - your computer will simply run better if the swap file can be accessed faster. It's not uncommon for a new drive to be faster than an old one. For instance, if your old drive is an ATA 60 and your new second drive is an ATA 100 or even higher, then your new drive is much faster. Move the swap file to the second drive if that is the case.2. Size and fragmentation - If you can allow the use of the space, you will improve your performance by setting the swap file to a permanent size. Some persons set it to twice their RAM. If space may be a limitation, there is a way to set it to a minimum safe size for your needs, while allowing Windows to expand it when needed.This permanent physical size or permanent minimum size keeps Windows from contantly resizing the swap file - obviously that would have a big hit on performance. Also, unless you have Norton'e Speed Disk or the high end Diskeeper, the swap file will become fragmented amd your standard defragger won't be able to help you. A set size keeps it unfragmented. All of these things help performance.As far as scenery is concerned, if Fly! is accessing the drive for program operations at the same time it's seeking to load a large piece of Terrascene from the same drive, then it will force the sim to halt or stutter in some cases, mattering on your RAM. There are 2 advantages to placing some scenery on another drive - they can be accessed simultaneously and you will open up disk space on the drive the program is on. This allows for less fragmentation under normal operation. Again, ny second drive is a bit faster, so having it do some of the more complex scenery loads helps. The neat thing about Fly! is you can set it up to load scenery from any drive. Hard drives would be the best, but you can also load automatically from zips, CDs, you name it.

[Guest]

Tony,I

[Guest tonyc]

thanks, getlemen. It's giving me food for thought. I do have Norton System works, so I might be able to set a partition for a permanent swap section on my second drive. tony

[Avcomware 1]

Hi. I am sure, you will get other opinions, here what I found to work the best, for me.My OS is W98SE, WD60Gb hard disk, XP 1800+ O.C. to 2000+, GF3 OC. 230/504. I

[Guest Josve]

Just remember one thing though......sooner or later a harddrive will failSo for gods sake back up your files of importance.......burn on a cd-get a zip drive-another or several harddrives....never trust hardware!!!!Over the years building computers I have seen soo many frustrated persons asking for help to recover files lost in crashes....and luckily for them,I still know my DOS.....If you are into making your own PC,don't ever forget the static electricity!! it can damage your harddrive in a second....a human being can have as much as 3000volts in their bodies.And just moving your hand over a IC (chip) kan destroy it.So be sure to ground yourselves before opening the cabinet......Johnny"I'LL BE BACK"[div align=center]http://www.avsim.com/hangar/fly/josve/fly2/vas.gif][/div

[Avcomware 1]

Hi, Joe. I agree, nothing is foolproof. I

[Guest Josve]

I agree with you...but I just broke one harddrive due to Static...AND I SHOULD HAVE KNOWN BETTER!!! LOL with all my not backuped stuff on it....Shame on me!!! I also watched another get damaged about a year ago...in most cases it will not,but sometimes ##### happens.I have seen it on xray before and after a hand was moved over a chip,destroyed.I'm an electrical engineer by profession and know a bit on that issue :)But everybody makes mistakes...I just did...got 380v in me the other day,and beleave me that hurted a lot!!!!But my intension is just to say be careful when you deal with hardware.You'll never know when something gets broken....be sure to grab the cabinet with one hand before you start touching things inside.And backup is a good thing :)I lost all my mail from several years,a lot of work on my website,a lot of documents,codes etc etc....on that harddrive crash.Johnny"I'LL BE BACK"[div align=center]http://www.avsim.com/hangar/fly/josve/fly2/vas.gif][/div

[Avcomware 1]

Hi, Joe.Sorry to hear about your problem. If you think that is your controller that is NG, it is easy to replace, from another same type drive. I don

[Guest Dean]

>2. Size and fragmentation - If you can allow the use of the >space, you will improve your performance by setting the swap >file to a permanent size. Some persons set it to twice their >RAM. If space may be a limitation, there is a way to set it >to a minimum safe size for your needs, while allowing >Windows to expand it when needed. >>This permanent physical size or permanent minimum size keeps >Windows from contantly resizing the swap file - obviously >that would have a big hit on performance. Also, unless you >have Norton'e Speed Disk or the high end Diskeeper, the swap >file will become fragmented amd your standard defragger >won't be able to help you. A set size keeps it unfragmented. Randall,I think this has confused me before. Is the swap file setting changed by the altering the virtual memory settings under the System propertiesPerformance tab or is is the swap file a different setting?