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There are numbers of software (programs) and hardware (computer components) which will help speed up your 'throughput' (actual computer work processing/output). Many, many. Norton/Symantec has some good ones, Microsoft has many built in.

Think of a hard drive as a filing room, with many filing cabinets. Each partition (filing cabinet) has many drawers (directories) and folders (sub-directories) Which store information.

The FAT (File Allocation Table) is actually, a list of addresses of physical locations on the hard drive where the information is stored.

The hard drive storage in the computer works on a first come first serve basis, so when you store data, it pops it into the first place there is room for it. If there is enough room, it stores all your data in that place. If not, it stores as much as it can, then goes on, to store in the next space, etc etc etc. So think about working a file cabinet this way. You start with one drawer, then fill another drawer, and then another, etc etc etc. until they are full. And while you are doing this you start taking out and using or moving or throwing away some of the files, so like you have 'empty' spaces scattered through your drawers. So, as you have some space, the computer will store page 1 of your 10 page report, in drawer 1, page 2 and 3 in drawer 2, and the last 7 pages in drawer 5.

So, every time your computer accesses these reports it must go and gather up all the bits and pieces, and link them together. This takes extra time.

Optimizing (defragmenting) your hard drive, is like reorganizing your filing cabinet, and putting all the parts of your reports together, one page after another.

If you click on programs, accessories, system tools, then disk defragmenter. you will get a program which 'optimizes', or 'defragments' your files on your hard drive.

The older your hard drive gets, and the more you use it, the more 'fragmented' and slower it becomes. so it is wise to 'defragment' or optimize it about once a month, (depending on your workload, and your work.

Partitioning your hard drive is something you should do first, like when you buy your filing cabinets and first organize your filing room. Optimizing it is like recurring maintenance, like a good filing clerk would do.

You have a fine computer already, which is quite probably good for everything you need to do, but it is sort of like a 3 year old car, not the latest and greatest, and not a Corvette, but a good Ford Crown Victoria. You just need to give it a tune up, every now and then, as your family grows. But, after a while, you will find it hard to get the grand children in it too, and will need to go to a van, or if you have a mid-life crisis, a shiny red corvette -va-va=voom.

But, if time is money to you, you will win more races with the corvette than with the ford.

Oh, sorry, you are from NYC and probably don't drive.