How to save disk space!If you find yourself running short on disk space on your main system drive - the drive that has the windows operating system on it. You have some options as how to regain space; you can either delete a bunch of unnecessary files or programs (old restore points, temp files etc.) Or you can compress the files or the entire drive thus regaining a bit of space. You can only do this if you have the NTFS file system (as opposed to FAT32 or some others.)

Often times users will take a single hard drive and partition it into two logical halves, half for the OS and the other for data or whatever. Once the OS half gets used up you can’t allocate more space for it without erasing the partition entirely. Unfortunately windows doesn’t natively allow you to repartition the system drive and maintain the data on it, you will have to invest in third party software to do that (Partition Magic $70).

To compress your files in Vista and XP simply:

Click windowskey + R
type explorer
Click OK

Click My Computer
Right Click the drive to be compressed
Click Properties

Check the Compress drive… box

The amount of disk space saved by compressing is dependent on what type of files are being compressed. Bitmap files may compress 80%, text files may compress 60% while PDF files may compress %10.

You can always use the disk cleanup tool to free up additional hard disk space:

Click Windows Key + R

Type cleanmgr.exe

Click OK

Hardware not working and you don’t have the drivers!

This problem can happen when you inherit a used computer, or you are installing used hardware that doesn’t have a driver disk. First check the Device manager. This is shown with windows XP, Vista is similar:

Hit the WindowsKey + R
Type devmgmt.msc
Click OK

Listed here are the devices connected to your pc. If you see a red (X) , yellow (!) This indicates that the device is disabled (X) or that it has limited functionality or bad or missing drivers (!):

Right clicking the problem device
Click properties you should see this sub menu:

If the device is disabled you can enable it now.

If the device is enabled but still not working and showing an exclamation point then you can choose to update the driver. Updating the driver can be automated, or you can point windows to the exact folder location of the driver files; typically an .INF file:

Sometimes windows can’t find the drivers automatically, in this case you need to manually tell it where to look. Assuming you have the drivers on a folder on the computer, windows will find the drivers in the folder you specify and complete the installation. What happens if you don’t have the drivers?

At this point your only recourse is to download the drivers from the manufacturers webpage. Sometimes windows can’t locate the drivers for an unknown device. If you don’t know what this device is or who made it then things get tricky. Oftentimes the device is not really a new device but special functionality of an existing device that requires additional drivers. But the way windows lists it you might think it’s an unidentified separate thing. For some devices windows can tell you what family of hardware it belongs in: network adapter, video adapter. PCI devices are given identifying numbers by windows that relate to its manufacturer and googleing this device ID may help you find the manufacturer:

Click Properties
Click Details
You can see the Device ID for this network card.

If you find that you are unable to identify non-functional equipment on your pc, you have a few choices; crack open the pc case and find unidentified components (the hard way), contact the pc or laptop manufacturer (easier), or use hardware snooping software like Driver Magician to discover the manufacturer (easy but costs money).

Also the files that you download from a manufacturers website can be in various packaging forms that require a specific install method. The .INF file is what windows install wizard will recognize, but if the file is an .EXE file it may be a small program that when run by itself will install the driver without using the windows hardware wizard. So be sure to read the instructions for installing the drivers. Always avoid a computer fix by reading my blog!

Burning CD’s and DVD’s can be a time consuming endeavor, rife with frustration and “coasters”. This lesson is geared toward helping you avoid the multitude of problems associated with creating music, video and data DVD’s and CD’s. My complaint with most burning software is that there is no clear way to select the RIGHT method to create the disc you want to make without having to dig for it (And many cheaper software apps don’t allow you to make all of these kinds of DVD’s!). Typically you will see a complex menu of options for creating DVD video discs (that will give you the fancy menus like you see when you rent a movie DVD), DVD audio disc, DVD data disc, DVD photo disc etc. When all you want is a data disc (folders with files in them), or to copy an existing DVD exactly.

For starters lets let it be known that Vista has some issues with consistently creating DVD’s error free. Vista can natively write to DVD’s without third party software. But there are documented problems. Windows XP needs third party software for DVD creation, CD’s it can handle natively.

Common problems deal with CD/DVD hardware and drivers

Older DVD or CD burners may not be fully compatible with newer software including Windows Vista (i.e you can view the contents, but maybe not burn a disc.) It’s a good idea to update the firmware of your CD/DVD burner if possible and keep drivers updated. Third party software like Nero and Roxio have had there share of problems but usually work better than ever, as long as the drivers, media and other requirements are met.

Disc media used to be a problem where using cheaply made discs would half the time end as “coasters” - useless unsuccessfully burned discs. Generally this isn’t as big a concern as it once was but you can still run into trouble buying bad discs. Unfortunately you can’t always physically SEE the discs are bad. Media types such as DVD-RAM, DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD-RW need to be considered when burning discs because many players can read one type and not another or record to one type and not another.

Formatting the disc can lead to trouble. There are various kinds of file formats available for burning discs; UDF, ISO being common types. UDF allows for newer more advanced file types (the ability to burn some files to a disc now and then some more later) and will only work reliably on newer operating systems, while ISO generally is readable on more players and operating systems.

Don’t overwork the PC when burning discs

A good rule of thumb is to try premium - name brand disc manufacturers and use different formats as mentioned previously (DVD-R, DVD+R) to see which works more reliably on your system. Also I make a rule to not do anything else with my computer while burning CD/DVD’s - turn off unnecessary programs running in the background. And burning at full speed is not recommended. If you have a 8X DVD burner and the media is 4X you will run into trouble burning at 8X speed. In this case I would try at 3X speed or slower. It often takes some experimenting to get this part right. It’s worth mentioning that copying files directly from a CD/DVD disc to a blank CD/DVD disc are not recommended. It’s usually better to copy from a hard drive to a CD/DVD. Having plenty of RAM memory always helps. Go get ‘em!

Take back control of your system startup

Often windows gets so loaded with software that over time too many programs are loaded when windows starts or there is a troublesome app that locks up the system. Having too much loading at startup is the main culprit in slow boot ups. One handy tool to help with this is the system config tool. This tool allows for choosing what services or programs windows will start automatically. I’ve even seen some programs make deselecting an auto-start tricky or impossible.

In vista or XP:
click start
click run
type in msconfig
click ok

This tool is meant for diagnosing problems. If an application is causing startup issues it’s best to uninstall it entirely via its uninstall application and don’t just uncheck it from the startup menu. Sometimes Spyware apps will be listed here!

There are options under the general tab to start normally which is to run all programs as usual or start selective which means you can choose which specific apps to allow. Diagnostics startup which is like a safe mode start up with only basic services and apps loaded. The Start up tab shows all the third party software that you can selectively startup, checked boxes indicates the program is selected to start. Be aware that sometimes some of this software may be necessary to run windows optimally (i.e a mouse driver, video card drivers). The services tab shows all windows services. Now be careful with the services because many of these are required for basic components of the system to operate. Unless you know for sure that a service isn’t needed at all it’s best to leave it as is or feel free to read Some services that can be safely disabled. Happy computing.