Annoyance...maybe you guys can help

777 Views 2 Replies 2 Participants Last post by HeadRusch, Jul 28, 2009

HeadRusch

Discussion Starter · Jul 27, 2009

In a nutshell: I run a 37" Westinghouse LCD for my main monitor...37". Its every so slightly too big, but I've adjusted to it. I've considered getting something smaller since I dont game that much on the PC and, frankly, going from 25 to 37 inches or so isn't the worlds biggest deal. I remember getting it however and going "This...is just too big".

Anyways....I digress.

With such a huge monitor and lots of real-estate it means I tend to let my desktop get collected with lots of icons. I have a fairly standard, eg: not optimized, install of XP Home. It sits on a Seagate 320gig drive that at the time was respectable for its speed. I defrag monthly, give or take.

The problem is this: The desktop loves to "reset" itself when I open or close an app or something, its like the desktop goes blank, just the wallpaper shows....then icons come back as blank or default..and then repopulate in to what they are supposed to be...eg: a jpeg will show as an IRFAN file, an mp3 will take the Winamp icon...etc, etc....it takes a few seconds, tops. But its annoying! I have no idea why it happens....is this just the desktop cache refreshing itself or something?

It got me thinking: What is the optimal way to install XP or Windows 7, cuz I have it on preorder (yes,I am insane). I may not be able to alter the install on my existing box but that might be the time to simply to a re-install.

Is it to put windows components (including the desktop) on one drive, and do all other software on a seperate drive....keeping your main windows install limited to a few gigs and some free space for cache......??

For games...I install some on my c drive..others on a seperate drive, not sure I'd see any difference there.

Do barracudas or raptors or whatever the current "hot" drive is these days really make any appreciable difference in load times or in how fast the system does things....?? I always thought not....not really anyhow.

Just wondering if that blanking of the desktop and re-population of icons is the norm as the disk spins.....

Danke...

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MSmith83

· #2 · Jul 28, 2009

Quote:
Originally Posted by HeadRusch /forum/post/16896536

Is it to put windows components (including the desktop) on one drive, and do all other software on a seperate drive....keeping your main windows install limited to a few gigs and some free space for cache......??

For games...I install some on my c drive..others on a seperate drive, not sure I'd see any difference there.

People are more commonly using a small-capacity drive for the OS and programs, while using large-capacity drives for media such as games and music.

I personally just use a 640GB Western Digital Caviar Black for my OS, programs and many games. The rest of my media is stored on other Caviar Black drives with 1TB capacity.

Quote:
Originally Posted by HeadRusch /forum/post/16896536

Do barracudas or raptors or whatever the current "hot" drive is these days really make any appreciable difference in load times or in how fast the system does things....?? I always thought not....not really anyhow.

The better 7200RPM drives these days perform very well and are built for exceptional reliability. For tasks like gaming, I wouldn't bother getting a VelociRaptor over something like a Caviar Black if you are not using a RAID-0 array.

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HeadRusch

Discussion Starter · #3 · Jul 28, 2009

I think my problem is that with a huge desktop, I tend to leave stuff on that desktop.

The desktop gets cluttered...then when I try to move stuff off the desktop, all of windows performs slowly because, you know, its one drive spinning up a new app, etc.

I wonder..can you move the storage location for the Desktop.......hmmmm.

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