[X-Newbies] Re: X-Newbies Digest, Vol 18, Issue 2

[Robert MacLeay]

You can move just about anything in your Home Folder to Mac Storage, except
Library.

There is more to having an unfragmented disk than just having lots of files
contiguous.  One critical file, if badly fragmented, will bring your system
to its knees. You also want the free space to be reasonably contiguous as
well.  This is because your system is generating virtual memory swap files
all the time, and these are being accessed continually.  Since they are
about 76 MB each, reading and writing them can be a burden on an older
system.

To see the state of your virtual memory, go to the Finder and search
(command-F) for items whose filename contains: "swapfile" and visibility =
"all"

You will see swapfile0, swapfile1, etc.  The more there are, the greater the
probability that your system is being slowed by the burden of virtual
memory.  Use Norton to see if any of these files are badly fragmented; if
they are there is your problem.

Another possibility is that your HD or your drive controller is on the way
out.  Probably not, since your HD's size indicates it is much newer than the
computer itself.

Some solutions: It would help if your OS X partition were larger. You have a
problem with the 8 GB limit for OS X, of course, but every little bit helps.
8 billion bits = 7.4505 formatted GB, so you could make it another 10%
larger. This will not be easy, I understand, for it involves erasing and
reformatting.

A better idea would be to bite the bullet and replace your computer.  Early
G4s are selling for under $200 and would be a night-and-day improvement over
what you have now.  They can also run Panther and Tiger, which will make
your life so much easier.  Printing in Panther is infinitely improved over
Jaguar. Get Tiger if your applications are new enough to be compatible with
it; otherwise Panther is fine.


On 2/16/06 12:28 PM, "x-newbies-request at listserver.themacintoshguy.com"
<x-newbies-request at listserver.themacintoshguy.com> wrote:

> When I am in Mac OSX, the computer seems to run more slowly every day.
> Mail and Word for Mac are particularly slow and I sometimes lose Word
> when I am working on charts. A check with Norton Disk Doctor does not
> reveal any problems and only light fragmentation.
> 
> Could it help to move things to Mac Storage to give more room to OSX?
> What kinds of things can I move?