[PCWorld]

Post your comments for Eight Tips for a Faster Hard Drive here

[bermik]

I downloaded Duplicate File Finder and ran it to find - as you predicted - hundreds of duplicate files. Now, what does one do? Please advise. Thanks.

[paulmasters]

That's my concern, too, bermik. I have a bunch of duplicate files, and I'm more or less stymied as to which ones to delete.As Steve said, if one is in a Windows folder, delete the one that is not. But I have several duplicate files, all in Windows but in diverse sub-directories. I don't know which of THOSE to delete safely!Any advice, Steve?

[stevebass]

I think paulmasters said it all. Use common sense when deleting dups. I go into more detail in my blog:http://blogs.pcworld.com/tipsandtweaks/archives/003816.html

[Wickerman]

I find the mention of that duplicate finding program to be pointless. I ran it and it found over 5,000 dupes. OK, what do I do now? There doesn't appear to any kind of semi-intelligent mass-delete option. I simply highlighted all dupes and then hit delete. That wouldn't work, I got an error message. Well, I'm certainly not going to go through 5,000 files deciding what I should delete and what I shouldn't one at a time. I do have a job and somewhat of a life.:) It's like the only point of mentioning it was to say to me, "Look at all the duplicate files you have. Now if you want to get rid of them forget about all the responsibilities you have and spend a couple years doing so."

[KenL]

What about a system with a disk array?I currently use Registry Mechanic & SystemWorks 07.

[versus]

How come your downloads do not verify the "PUBLISHERS SIGNATURE"? How do we know they are safe?

[chucks]

I downloaded Golden Bow Systems Vopt 8 defragger to try. After using it and restarting Windows, the restart took forever. After rebooting again I looked at Windows defrag analyze and Windows undid the defrag. The Vopt 8 defrag did a good job but it looks like Windows does not like it. Comments please

[Harmonic7]

Defrag in "Safe Mode" to include many prgs & services that would normally be running (does not work w/ some 3rd party defraggers but does a much more thorough job if you can do it).

[snowman9156]

after donwloading the VOPT 8 defrag it had three virus that my security system found. I do not recommend this download.it needs to be checked. wayne

[omcgrew]

Hi Steve,I have a question about Defraging the HD. I have Windows XP and would like to know if I can defrag the HD in Windows Safe Mode? Thank you.Otis

[stevebass]

omcgrew:As Harmonic7 replied a few posts above, you can defrag in safe mode. But Vopt has a feature that closes all unnecessary applications, so the end result is that you get good defragging without the hassle of booting to safe mode.

[Harmonic7]

Hey Steve:I recently found a cool defrag 'optimizer' for XP/Vista - SpeeDefrag 5.0.1 @ www.vcsoftwares.com/SpeeDefrag.html. The program's blurb reads: "SpeeDefrag is the exclusive freeware program , which optimizes Windows XP defrag. It restarts your computer, which refreshes the RAM and loads just the defrag.exe program. This imposes minimum load on the system and therefore defragmentation speed is increased. This small software will also shutdown or restart your computer automatically once defrag is over. Also now it supports scheduling of defrag." Very easy to use - bring it up, select the drive, the shutdown or restart after defrag option, & hit the start button. Definitely faster & more convenient than going to Safe Mode, & it's free! Maybe you could give it a try & tell us what you think of it in 1 of your future columns(?).

[stevebass]

Harmonic7: Just as soon as I have Vista up and running...

[Marco96]

I ran windrstat and got rid off Hiberfil.sys, then I found that my deleted items file (Outlook Express) was 73% used, I did go to Outlook Express and got rid off all the deleted files and ran windrstat again and the deleted items file was still 73% used, how can I get rid off this?Thanks.

[roye]

The speed and performance of todays HDDs in spite of being so fast and large are still limited due to fragmentation. Its almost certain that with the addition and deletion of huge files, which almost every file we deal with today be it a video or graphic file, drives will get fragmented and slowdown. Along with factors such as heat it can really bog down the system performance and result in stability problems like freezes and crashes. This would have greatest relevance in the server scene, where innumerable files get created and deleted everyday.