Upgrading Computer Hardware
dizzy:
Quote from: Brynne on 2005 September 14, 17:12:49
So more RAM would be the way to go, then? And about the second drive: would that require reformatting my computer? And how would I go about setting that up? Virtual memory is another thing I'm clueless about. I've gotten the "Your system is low on virtual memory..." pop-up a few times. Virtual memory is a complete mystery to me. My husband has patiently explained it to me a billion times and I still don't get it. I have it set (custom) to minimum 1000MB and maximum 1500MB. Recommended is 766. 767 MB is currently allocated. What did I do wrong? Would putting the swap file on another drive improve that? I have to play the game in windowed mode because the damn virtual memory pop-up would minimize my game, and then getting back into the game would take forever.
Whatever RAM you can add will help. The only thing you need is to format the drive itself (in Windows, which is pretty easy to do).
Virtual memory is where things go when they don't fit into your computer's physical memory (RAM). Having a second hard drive for virtual memory seems fairly obvious, especailly since (IIRC) Windows doesn't yet support things like SATA drives.
Motoki:
I have my virtual memory set to 4000 min and max. I used to run without any at all, which you can do if you have a lot of RAM ( I have 1GB) and does speed things up (RAM is faster than the HD and the virtual memory uses HD space at 'virtual RAM') but I found I got crashes when there was too much going on. Of course I probably shouldn't be throwing parties with 30 plus sims. ;D
The game is a total memory hog though so if you are getting out of memory errors then the best thing to do is to increase your virtual memory size, even if the size you currently use meets general Windows reccomendations.
Installing a second HD wouldn't require reformatting your original HD necessarily, but if you wanted Windows on the newer and faster HD, which might not be a bad idea since if Windows runs faster then in theory everything else running on Windows should, then you'd have to install Windows on the new HD. What you can do is install Windows and TS2 and anything you are concerned about running slow on the newer faster HD and then keep your original as a secondary HD with all your original files and use it to store stuff like text documents, mp3s etc. Things that you archive but aren't concerned about having to load quickly.
But honestly, cleaning house with some of your downloads is probably the best thing you can do to speed up the game and trust me as someone who has spent many an hour on file cleanup and maintanence, I know how much of a pain it is. Start by looking at some of the bigger files. I know that skintones tend to be large because they contain multiple large image files for every age, gender and fitness tone. If you absolutely don't need a skintone and don't have sims that are using it then get rid of it.
Motoki:
Quote from: dizzy-two on 2005 September 14, 17:23:31
(IIRC) Windows doesn't yet support things like SATA drives.
I have a serial ATA drive running under XP Service Pack 2 without problems. I just installed it a few days ago seems to be going well. I don't know if 95/98/NT/2000 support SATA but XP definitely does, although I'm not sure if you need SP2 or not to get that support.
Serial ATA (SATA) btw for those who many not know is a different method for transporting data between the hard drive and the motherboard. It allows for faster transfer speeds, generally up to 1.5x the fastest old ATA style hard drives, but older motherboards may no support it and you also have to buy a specific SATA Hard Drive and hook it up to a motherboard with SATA slots to support it.
Brynne:
Okay, thanks, guys. I am going to take your advice and install windows and reinstall TS2 on a new drive. How do I go about creating a new drive in windows xp pro? I reformatted an old laptop a long time ago, but I forget what I did. :-\ That was when I was still playing the Sims 1 on a 6GB 366Mhz laptop and trying to reshuffle things around to make space for the game. If I remember correctly, I had 2 drives and neither was large enough, so I wanted to combine them. I also had partitions on the main drive, which I had to resize. I found a free program that I put on a floppy, and I followed the directions and successfully did what I wanted to do. But, like cramming for exams the night before, I was an expert about reformatting and repartitioning for about a day, then forgot everything I learned the next day.
To create a new drive do I need any other software, or can it be done in windows?
Motoki:
What I would do, and what I actually did myself recently is this:
Temporarily unhook your old hard drive.
Hook up the new hard drive
Install Windows from the original CD to the new HD (you may have to go into the BIOS options, usual by hitting delete at startup, and make sure your computer is setup to be able to boot up from a CD)
The Install will probably ask you about formating the new HD, go ahead and do it, if it gives you a choice between formatting for NTFS or FAT I would go with NTFS. If you want to make two or more partitions you can, but XP can handle very large partitions so just having the new HD as one big partition should be fine.
Once all the Windows install is finished then shut down the computer and hook up your old hard drive. Windows should then automatically detect it next time it restarts and will probably label it as drive E: (assuming you only have one CD Drive, the new HD should be C: and the CD D:)
If the computer is booting up from your old hard drive and old install of Windows once you hook the old hard drive back up you may also have to go into the BIOS and change the boot load order to put the new hard drive first.
Once you do this, you technically won't need the Windows directory and its files on your old HD and can delete it if you want, however I prefer to keep it as a backup. That way if your new HD gets hosed and won't boot to Windows, you still have a backup drive with Windows installed that can.
If I'm talking too much in computergeekese let me know and I'll try and explain myself better ;) but it really isn't too bad to do, it just takes some time to set up.
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