Tech Tip of the Day: How to change the amount of Virtual Memory in Windows 7

Description: Virtual Memory is space on your hard drive that the system can use as an extension of your memory if it is full. This can help systems that have lower amounts of physical memory to run more efficiently. Virtual memory is slower than physical memory but can help performance.

1. Click Start and select Control Panel.
   
   
   
   
2. When the control panel opens click System and Security.
   
   
   
   
3. On the next screen click on System.
   
   
   
   
4. On the panel to the left click Advanced System Settings.
   
   
   
   
5. From the tabs along the top select Advanced.
   
   
   
   
6. Then select Settings under performance.
   
   
   
   
7. In the window that comes up select Advanced again.
   
   
   
   
8. The computer will display how much virtual memory it currently has.
   
   
   
   
9. If you want to increase this amount you can do so by clicking Change.
   
   
   
   
10. The bottom of the screen will display the current settings and what Windows recommends.
    
    
    
    
11. If you would like to change this amount deselect the checkbox by Automatically manage paging file size and select custom size.
    
    
    
    
12. You can then input the amount you would like into the initial and maximum size boxes.
    
    
    
    
13. Once you have changed the size to the desired amount click Set.
    
    
    
    
14. Then click OK.
    
    
    
    
15. Then close any windows that are still open and restart the computer, This reboot may take longer than normal as it makes the changes.
16. The changes are now in effect.

For more assistance contact Technical Support click here.

Tech Tip of the Day: How to mount a virtual hard drive (VHD) in Windows 7

Description: This article describes how to mount a virtual hard drive (VHD) in Windows 7.

1. VHD is a file extension in Windows that stands for Virtual Hard Disk. It is a publically available image format specification that allows the encapsulation of an entire hard disk in one file. It is capable of hosting several formats such as NTFS, FAT, exFAT and UDFS and may be used as a boot drive by programs such as Microsoft's Virtual PC. One may wish to access the contents of a virtual hard drive without actually booting it up. This is natively possible in Windows 7 by mounting the image to appear as another hard drive.
   
   
2. To mount a virtual hard drive in Windows 7 click on the Start orb.
   
   
   
   
3. Click Control Panel.
   
   
   
   
4. Click System and Security.
   
   
   
   
5. In the Administrative Tools category click Create and format hard disk partitions.
   
   
   
   
6. Click the Action menu and select Attach VHD.
   
   
   
   
   
   
7. A new window will open. Click the Browse button.
   
   
   
   
8. Browse to the location of the VHD file, select it and click Open.
   
   
   
   
9. The path will now appear in the Location box. Click OK.
   
   
   
   
10. The VHD file now appears as a new hard drive attached to the next available drive letter in Windows Explorer.
    
    
    

For more assistance contact Technical Support click here.

Tech Tip of the Day: How to shrink and create a new partition

Description: This document will show how to create a new partitioned "Hard Drive" from your existing drive.

Ever feel like space is becoming an issue on the C drive (Solid State Drive maybe?) or there is certain files in which rather than having them on the C drive and taking up space - would rather put them somewhere else? Maybe the computer has two hard drives or one drive that has a large amount of space on the computer that the user would like to split up and make more organized or keep certain files in?

Well, this is how to do so - by taking an existing partition and shrinking it down to a certain size. Once this has been done, the user is able to create a new volume and create in a sense, a new "Hard Drive" on the computer to put documents and files on that is separate from the other drives.

1. First, click the Start button in the bottom left and go up to Computer - right click and left click on Manage.
   
   


2. Now Computer Management window should have come up on the screen, select Disk Management on the left hand side.
   
   


3. As shown, the user will want to find their disk drive that they wish to shrink - right click on the healthy partition and go down to Shrink Volume.
   
   


4. Once Shrink Volume has been selected, this pop up should appear in the middle of the screen.
   
   


5. Next, the user will want to determine what size they want the new volume to be, thus choosing the amount of space to shrink. Remember: 1024MB = 1GB. So in this case, we’ll do 10GB of space: 10x1024 = 10240MB. Once the user has entered in the amount to shrink, click the Shrink button.
   
   


6.  Now, there should be an unallocated space showing as connected to the drive. This is now useable space that can be partitioned.
   
   


7.  Right click anywhere in the unallocated space and select the option for New Simple Volume.
   
   


8. This window should pop up - simply click Next to get the process started.
   
   


9. Leave this set to the default that it comes up as - this will be the default max amount of space in MB. Click Next and Next again.
   
   


10. Again, leave the page default unless the user chooses to change the Volume Label or File system. Click Next once all changes have been made.
    
    


11. Now the wizard is finished, click Finish for the partition process to complete.
    
    


12. The user should be welcomed by a New Volume in Disk Management and also an AutoPlay pop up window showing a new drive has been found.
    
    


13. Click Start and click on Computer, now the new drive should be viewable. Now the user is free to use the drive as they please.
    
    


14. Now, to delete the new volume if the user chooses not to use this or adds another drive - simply go back into Disk Management. Right click on your partition and go down to Delete Volume. The volume will now be deleted and show as unallocated space as it did before.
    
    


15. Now, right click on the main drive it was coming from and go to Extend Volume.
    
    


16. The user should be greeted by the popup above. Click Next on this popup and click Finish to finish the process.
    
    


17. Back to normal!
    
    

For more assistance contact Technical Support here.

Tech Tip of the Day: How to save space on Solid State Drives (SSDs) - Part Five: User Directories

Description: This is a technical article on the topic of saving space on Solid State Drives. Part five covers moving the user directories.

The purpose of this article series is to show how to save space on Solid State drives, which are typically smaller than standard hard drives. In this article we will use a secondary hard drive, presumed to be larger than the solid state drive, as sort of repository, so we may move files from the faster SSD drive to the bigger standard hard drive.

Backup
Although we haven't had issues in our testing, we do recommend you do a backup of your important files before proceeding.

User Directories
The User Directories are the folders such as Documents, Pictures, Videos, et cetera, which are stored in your user directory. In this document we will move these to save space. We will be moving these directories from the C:\ drive (SSD) to the E:\ drive (HDD). This configuration may differ per system, so make sure the drive letters are right with your system.

1. Go to Start, then click on your Username in the top right.
   
   


2. Right-Click on a folder - we will use My Pictures and choose Properties.
   
   


3. Choose the Location tab, then click Move.
   
   


4. On the left in the new window, select the E:\ drive from the list, under the Computer section.
   
   


5. Once that is selected, select New Folder at the top.
   
   


6. Name the new folder appropriately - typically it would be the same as the username we clicked on earlier. In this case, it is Example.
   
   


7. Open the new folder by double-clicking on it.
8. Create another new folder using the same method, this time naming it My Pictures, or the name of the folder we are moving over.
   • Both of these names can be whatever you like, but this is the best method for keeping things organized.
   
   


9. Highlight the new folder, and then choose Select Folder at the bottom to complete the selection process.
   
   


10. Click on Apply to complete the move process.
11. Repeat this process for any folders in the user directory that need to be moved - anything that takes up substantial amounts of space would be recommended.
12. Once all the selected folders have been moved, restart the computer to complete the process.

For more assistance contact Technical Support here.

Tech Tip of the Day: How to save space on Solid State Drives (SSDs) - Part Four: Index

Description: This is a technical article on the topic of saving space on Solid State Drives. Part four covers moving the search index from the C:\ drive to the E:\ drive.

The purpose of this article series is to show how to save space on Solid State drives, which are typically smaller than standard hard drives. In this article we will use a secondary hard drive which is presumed to be larger than the solid state drive as sort of repository for the Windows search index files.

Index
The Search Index is one of the best features of Windows 7 - when you search for anything on your computer, it pops up almost instantly. We certainly don't want to disable this feature, so what we will do is move the index to save space. We will be moving this from the C:\ drive (SSD) to the E:\ drive (HDD). This configuration may differ per system, so make sure the drive letters are right with your system.

Note:
Moving the index from your SSD to your standard hard drive may slow down search results marginally. At worst, the search results would return at the speed of a computer without an SSD.

1. Click on Start, enter Index and select Indexing Options
   
   


2. On this new window, select Advanced towards the bottom.
   • Note: Approve or allow any permission prompts.
   
   


3. Under Index Location, select the Select New option.
   
   


4. Select the E:\ drive, then choose Make New Folder.
   
   


5. Enter Index as the name of the folder, select that folder and then click OK to complete.
   • Note: You can put the Index wherever you like, the above is just an example.
6. Click OK on the Advanced Options window.
7. Restart your computer to complete the process. Once complete, the Index will have been moved from the C:\ to the E:\ drive.

For more assistance contact Technical Support here.