connecting a ext. usb casing with ide device slows down my pc

  • Thread starter Thread starter sangamindia
  • Start date Start date
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sangamindia

recently i tried shifting all my applications to a mobile external usb
casing with a laptop 20 gb harddisk. soon i ran into this strange
problem. my pc actually slows down !

initially i did not notice the difference on my home athlon pc, but
when i took that to my office pc with amd k6-2 550 processor, it really
sucked. my office pc would stop responding almost. i started comparing
the home pc perfomance, & i realized that it did affect my home pc too,
but only to a lesser extent, only because it was much more faster. i
noticed problems in cd writing applications, when i had a usb drive
connected. the problem was clearly pronounced when i connected a second
usb hard drive. the problem was just teh same as what happened to my
office pc. it simply stops responding, or takes ages.

i realized that this problem had occured several times earlier to me,
when i had usb drives connected on different pcs. (actually i run a
computer hardware & software business).

i use windows xp pro on both the pcs, with service pack 2. apparently
there is no other reason for this slowing down.

does anybody have a clue ?
 
<snip #1>

When performing a clean install, Microsoft recommends that NTFS be used
and that the system be installed in a single partition on each disk. Under Windows XP,
big partitions are better managed than in previous versions of Windows.
Forcing installed software into several partitions on the disk necessitates longer seeks
when running the system and software."

<end of snip #1>

Benchmarking on Windows XP
http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/system/sysperf/benchmark.mspx

NTFS Preinstallation and Windows XP
http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/system/winpreinst/ntfs-preinstall.mspx

<snip #2>

Microsoft implemented certain disk-layout optimizations in Windows XP.
To perform this optimization, during idle time Windows XP moves pages
used for booting the system and launching frequently used applications to
ensure these files are laid out contiguously on the hard disk. The contiguous
disk layout of these pages results in reduced disk seeks and improved disk I/O,
contributing to improved boot time and application launch time.

Windows XP does not perform these optimizations across volumes. Therefore,
for this optimization to be available to users, the hard disk must be partitioned
as a single volume.

<end of snip #2>

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows XP - Shell/User
Microsoft Newsgroups

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

:

| recently i tried shifting all my applications to a mobile external usb
| casing with a laptop 20 gb harddisk. soon i ran into this strange
| problem. my pc actually slows down !
|
| initially i did not notice the difference on my home athlon pc, but
| when i took that to my office pc with amd k6-2 550 processor, it really
| sucked. my office pc would stop responding almost. i started comparing
| the home pc perfomance, & i realized that it did affect my home pc too,
| but only to a lesser extent, only because it was much more faster. i
| noticed problems in cd writing applications, when i had a usb drive
| connected. the problem was clearly pronounced when i connected a second
| usb hard drive. the problem was just teh same as what happened to my
| office pc. it simply stops responding, or takes ages.
|
| i realized that this problem had occured several times earlier to me,
| when i had usb drives connected on different pcs. (actually i run a
| computer hardware & software business).
|
| i use windows xp pro on both the pcs, with service pack 2. apparently
| there is no other reason for this slowing down.
|
| does anybody have a clue ?
 
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