Goldenseal is Very Slow (Disk Fragmented)

Problem

Cursor spins for a long time during record saves. Fragmented hard drive. Goldenseal accounting software is very slow.

Diagnosis

The disk may be fragmented-- so it takes much longer to find places to put things when changes are saved.
Fragmentation is most likely if:
1. the disk is almost full, or
2. they've used the machine for 1+ year and never have defragmented it.

HINT-- Disks are quieter nowadays, but if you put your ear up to the computer you may still hear a "chug chug" sound as the drive head moves all over the place looking for small scraps of the company file.

Solution

Best solution- use Norton Utilities or something similar to defragment the drive.
Riskier but cheaper:
1. back up everything to another drive.
2. initialize the problem drive (Finder, Special menu, Erase Disk).
3. restore everything to the drive

Another thing to consider-- it may be a problem of insufficient RAM memory, which can cause excessive disk access when the computer starts using virtual memory for common operations.

Comments

Entered 11/26/01 by Dennis