System Tweaks

[Sue Whitham]

System tweaks in the VS11 manual consist of three stages;
1. Enabling DMA for IDE disks
2. Disabling write-behind caching
3. Setting the paging file size.
These are explained for Windows XP.
Are they also applicable in Vista - if so, how is it done?
I have a quadcore computer and 3gb RAM
SW.

[sjj1805]

Please view the following links.

Enabling DMA for IDE disks
All you wanted to know about Page Files but were afraid to ask

I'm running on XP at the moment so cannot answer the write behind catching - isn't it the same as XP?

Windows XP
Start at the desktop.
Right-click on My Computer, then left-click on Properties.
Click on the Hardware tab at the top.
Click on the Device Manager button.
Click on the + next to Disk Drives to expand it.
Right click on the hard drive on which to turn write caching off, then left click Properties.
Click on the Policies tab.
Click on Enable write caching on the disk to remove the tick. It must not be ticked.
Click OK.

[Sue Whitham]

Thanks for that.
The route there is slightly different in Vista, but I got there.
DMA was already enabled for my system, and I have now disabled write-behind caching.
Paging file change asked for a restart, but that is still showing 3370, although I set the custom tab to 6600 (double the actual RAM)
I have a powerful computer (Quad Core Q6600 2.4ghz 3gb RAM), but both Vista and High Definition video editing are greedy on RAM.
Incidentally, with both my High Def camcorders, I don't capture into VS11.5plus, but I download the TOD and MTS files to a folder on the hard drive direct from the camcorder hard disk.
Also, as I use this computer only for video editing, and it's not connected to the internet, I've removed the pre-installed Norton antivirus.
I'm hoping this will enhance the performance for high def editing.
SW.

[Ken Veal]

Steve,
could not get any further than Device Manager- this is what I did to get that far
My PC
R/Click window
System Properties
Hardware tab
Device Manager
Clicked + next to disc drives.....................
then this came up "Maxtor 6Y12OLO" and
Maxtor STM?602115AS.
No mention of C: F: or any other drive.
The Maxtor must refer to my external hardrive (only one- what is the other reference to?).It is a Maxtor one touch 4+.
can you help please ...........................Ken