Archive for April 2010
Chances are, if you have recently purchased a pre-built PC, you will find you have more than one logical hard drive when you click on My Computer. It is more than likely that you will have not only a C drive, but also a D drive.
Does this mean you have two hard drives inside your machine? No, it simply means that the single hard drive has been split into two separate partitions.
Two logical drives created on a single physical one. Think of it like tearing a piece of A4 paper in half, to make two smaller A5 pieces.
This is fine, until you need a single larger piece of paper to contain the text or drawing you are working on.
So what happens if one of your logical partitions gets full? Simple, re-partition the drive to make a single larger one.
We use disk partitioning tools to achieve this. This simple articles does not attempt to teach the user how to do this, we will make that the subject of a later post, for now we are simply going to introduce the major disk partitioning tools.
- Diskpart – A built in Windows command, works only with the command line, not recommended for people new to disk partitioning.
- Logical Disk Manager – Built into the Windows computer management console, very basic, ok for simple usage but unable to handle more complex partitioning operations.
- Partition Magic – The granddaddy of disk partitioning tools, this software can do it all, but at a cost.
- Partition Master – A well respected payware application, very similar to Partition Magic.
- Acronis Disk Director Suite – Simple to use premium package, ideal for first timers to disk partitioning.
These are all good disk partitioning tools in their own right, each of which tends to fit a different type of user, from advanced to basic. Check back soon for some actual tutorials on how to perform disk partitioning using these tools.
There can be no doubt that Netbooks have taken the world by storm. These handy little ultra portable computers are seen everywhere. Their low price tag and exceptional battery life have made them the gadget of choice for people who want to communicate and surf the web on the go.
However, the diminutive price tag comes and lower power consumption with a downside. The average Netbook is not exactly the most powerful machine in the world.
System resources are usually fairly limited and they are not designed to run heavyweight applications.
Should we consider the actual operating system a heavyweight application though? Well in the case of Windows Vista, there can be no doubt that this ill fated OS is something of a resource hog.
Many people who have installed Windows Vista on their Netbook have been disappointed with its performance. They want the nice features and the new look and feel of Windows Vista, but the resource overhead is too great.
All this has changed, as Windows 7 enters the arena. Initial tests have shown that running Windows 7 on a Netbook offers significant performance gains over Windows Vista on the same machine.
Windows 7 uses some 30% less system resources on idle, and upon a low spec machine like a budget Netbook, this is a serious saving.
Boot times are also much faster, with the Windows 7 login box often appearing in half the time the Windows Vista one took to arrive.
The benefits do not stop at the OS level, because there are more system resources left free once the OS has loaded, applications have more resources to use for themselves. The result is that the entire system becomes much more responsive.
If you are currently using Windows Vista on a low spec Netbook, then consider switching to Windows 7 to improve your computing experience.
