[NeedKarma]

I do not see anything called Event Viewer in Advanced Windows Care.

Are you referring to the page showing the summary of the problems it found?

Event Viewer:
Right-click My Computer icon, select Manage, Event Viewer is there.

[StuMegu]

Sorry Rick, I should have been clearer on this.

Event viewer is an inbuilt function of Windows 2000/xp etc that records various information, errors and warnings from the system. To view it, right click "my Computer" and select "manage" - you will find event viewer under "system tools" - check the system log for any errors that seem pertinent either disk or memory etc or anything that coincides with the timing of your test.

[Northwind_Dagas]

Perhaps a benchmark would be a good tool for measuring your speed here.

http://www.freshdevices.com/benchmark_software.html

Also, do you know the model of your internal hard disk? If not, Belarc Advisor could tell you then we could look up specifications and see what is "should" be doing rather than try to guess based on other systems' performance.

[StuMegu]

Good suggestion ND, its too easy to expect different machines to perform the same.

[RickJ]

Thanks guys. OK, nothing odd stood out in Event Manager, but I do see something odd re my memory use and availability.

With nothing running I've only got 60% of my memory available, and TuneUpUtilities says ccapp.exe is using an abnormally high amount of memory.

... off to check out freshdevices.com

[NeedKarma]

True, Rick could be running XP on a PIII w/ 128MB and a 6GB HD.
:D

[RickJ]

PS before I go too far:

Do y'all think that it might be just as efficient to do a format and see how things go with a clean install of windows and the few important apps I run?

PS; here is my internal hard drive:
Maxtor 4D040H2 [Hard drive] (40.98 GB) -- drive 0, s/n D24TN3CE, rev DAH017K0, SMART Status: Healthy

[NeedKarma]

Sure, take the easy way out.

[Northwind_Dagas]

With nothing running I've only got 60% of my memory available, and TuneUpUtilities says ccapp.exe is using an abnormally high amount of memory.

That's Norton's virus scan.

PS; here is my internal hard drive:
Maxtor 4D040H2 [Hard drive] (40.98 GB) -- drive 0, s/n D24TN3CE, rev DAH017K0, SMART Status: Healthy

That drive is 5400 RPM, with 2 MB Cache, ATA-100. Not a real big performer.

Ideally, for an IDE drive, you'd have 7200 RPM, with 8MB cache, ATA-133.

[RickJ]

Sure, take the easy way out.

Lol!

...

The memory thing just does not seem right. I've got 736MB of RAM.

With NIS disabled and nothing else running my free memory is 63%
I then enable NIS and it stays the same.
I then open MailWasher, which I always want running, and it goes down to 61%
With FF running and being on this site I'm down to 56%

Do these numbers really sound normal?

As for the whimpy HD, glad to hear that since HDs are pretty cheap.

[RickJ]

True, Rick could be running XP on a PIII w/ 128MB and a 6GB HD.
:D

No, I have a 486SX. Just bought it last week and was told it's state of the art. Did I get duped? :p

[NeedKarma]

I'll do a transfer test myself on my home system tonight and post the results. I suspect our setups are similar:
P1.4 / 512MB / 120 GB [make and model TBD]

[Northwind_Dagas]

The memory thing just does not seem right. I've got 736MB of RAM.

....

Do these numbers really sound normal?

I agree it sounds high. If you disable the real time scan for Norton, what does your memory usage look like?

[RickJ]

Isn't disabling NIS altogether the same thing as disabling the realtime scan?

... I did think that was weird that I had 63% available whether it was enabled or not.

[RickJ]

I'm going to try the optimizer for the ccapp issue and see what happens...

[Northwind_Dagas]

Isn't disabling NIS altogether the same thing as disabling the realtime scan?

...I did think that was weird that I had 63% available whether it was enabled or not.

Whoops! I didn't make the connection that NIS = Norton Internet Security.

What else is using large amounts of memory? If you look in the Task Manager, under Processes, you can see the amount of memory each process is using.

[RickJ]

Well first let me say that I did the Memory optimization (which moved stuff into the paging file... whatever that means) and now I'm at 67% free with NIS enabled, mailwasher running and surfing this site.

Under Task Manager Processes I've got a slew of stuff. The big hitters are

Firefox 30284 K
Mailwasher 23772
Explorer.exe 14168
Svchost.exe 10940
Ccapp.exe 11312

All others are under 5 digits.

[Northwind_Dagas]

Under Task Manager Processes I've got a slew of stuff. The big hitters are

firefox 30284 K
mailwasher 23772
explorer.exe 14168
svchost.exe 10940
ccapp.exe 11312

all others are under 5 digits.

Those all seem to be in check.

[RickJ]

Thanks, ND. I'm now running through the rest of the optimization stuff. If it does not make a significant change in my transfer speeds, I'll run off to get a new HD and do a fresh install of windows then the apps I run.

[NeedKarma]

Report:
I transferred 700MB from one physical drive (older maxtor 60GB IDE) to another physical drive (newer Maxtor 120GB IDE, on same cable), it took about 45-50 seconds. I don't have NIS, I use AVG and ZoneAlarm.

Note: my processor is 2.4Ghz not 1.4 as previously mentioned.