Low disk space doesn??™t just make it harder to store files; without ample
room for virtual memory (discussed later) and temporary files, Windows
will slow to a crawl. Less free disk space also increases file fragmentation
as Windows scrambles to find places to put data; this in turn also lowers
performance. Keeping a healthy amount of free disk space is vital to a wellperforming
system.
Additionally, removing drivers and applications that are no longer used
clears more memory and processor cycles for your other applications, which
can substantially improve overall system performance.
Hard Disk | 247
Performance
If your PC is low on disk space, try NTFS compression.*
Right-click any folder, select Properties, click Advanced, and
turn on the Compress contents to save disk space option.
Note that this can degrade performance, so you??™d be wise to
use it only for data that you don??™t access or modify often.
Even before you install your first application, your hard disk is littered with
files from the Windows installation that you most likely don??™t need. The
standard installation of Windows Vista Ultimate Edition places more than
39,000 files, consuming more than two gigabytes of disk space, on your PC.
Keeping an Eye on Prefetch
Prefetch is a new feature, introduced in Windows Vista, that stores specific
data about the applications you run in order to help them start faster. Prefetch
is an algorithm that helps anticipate cache misses (times when Windows
requests data that isn??™t stored in the disk cache), and stores that data on the
hard disk for easy retrieval.
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