i have used my computer for 5 years and it is getting very slow. would cleaning off my hard drive help.
Tagged with: hard drive
Filed under: Clean Up Computer
is there a program that lets me see what is on my hard drive and a way to clean it up?
January 11, 2010
8 thoughts on “is there a program that lets me see what is on my hard drive and a way to clean it up?”
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Clean Registry and Optimize PC
There are many reasons for a 5 year old computer to run slow and lack of maintenance is one of them. Windows has built in utilities under Start/Programs/Accessories/System Tools that will help. First run the disk clean up one. Then open MyComputer, right click on the C drive and select Properties/Tools/Check Now/Check Auto Fix and Scan for Bad and let it run. It will advise that it can’t run and prompt for reboot, so do it. When it comes back up go back to Start/Programs/Accessories/System Tools and run Disk Defrag one at a time for all drives. There are lots of 3rd party applications that will try to delete unneeded files, but unfortunately they often also delete important files, so I wouldn’t advise running one if slowness is your only problem. There are two FREE programs that you should install and run, AdAware and SpyBot. You should actuall do all the above about once a month as it’s easier to keep a computer running good than to fix a slow one. The only other thing you may want to so is look at the programs that run when you first start your computer and remove the ones you don’t use everyday. Go to Start/Run and type msconfig then click Strartup and disable any applications that aren’t used at least daily.
Probably a cleaning would help some. (You might like to keep ahead of the slowdown by doing monthly maintenance — defragment the disk, then do cleanup. This takes a while, so you might want to run the defrag program — which, like cleanup, is usually found in system tools — last thing before you sack out and let it run (with the monitor turned off to save electricity) all night.
DO NOT reformat — this will get rid of everything you’ve done for the last five years!
The defragment and cleanup only get rid of scattered files — those with bits and pieces scattered all over the disk — and the obvious things like *.tmp ("temporary") files. For a really serious cleanup you’ll need to go into Program Manager, look at each individual folder, pick out the files you no longer need or are finished with, and delete them with an explicit "delete" command. The automated defrag/cleanup programs can’t do this for you because they have no way of telling what are files that are perfectly valid files but which you no longer have any use for.
Slow speed is not going to be linked to your hard drive. Slow speed is due to to many programs running in the background. Print these steps. Good computer mantenance you should do frequently.
Do the following steps
click Start > run type in the box msconfig
Select start up tab. Deselect everything. restart teh system. you will get a pop up saying "the startup list had ben changed…." check the "do not show again" box and click ok.
Run any virus and spyware scanners you have and proceed to the next set of instructions.
Next double click "My Computer" RIGHT click on your c drive. Go to properties in the drop down menu that comes up. Click on disk clean up. Let it run untill it comes up with a box listing things like "temporary internet files" and "recycle bin" Select all items in this list. Hit clean. After this do the the next steps on properties window for your c drive. Select the tools tab. Click on Defragment. Run this when you are NOT using the computer.
Restart after all of that and you should be a little better than before.
Good luck!
I’d try a defrag first then I’d go for a good ol’ format.
To defrag, Right click on the C:\ drive.
Then select the tools tab
Then click on defrag
When de-fragmenting, remember to close ANY thing that migh be using the C:\ drive to both read or write stuff on it. (Like Antivirus and all other stuff that are in the system tray.)
To Format, I’d suggest checking it with a real tech, to make sure it is done correctlyé
Do a full recovery…. restore the system to its original version
use ‘defrag’ that comes with windows.
if your familiar with DOS go that route to clean drive.
Just use my computer and navigate the folders and delete stuff. Temp Internet files, unused programs and all that random rubbish you keep in that hidden folder that you dont use any more. Stop cluttering your PC up with 1002 free windows games will ya!
Sounds like you need to do some real housecleaning. Many things contribute to slooooooooooooow movement:
– Are you using a complex screensaver – it runs in the background and eats memory. I had fun with mine, then changed it to blank.
– How many programs do you load at startup? Maybe you should check it out and ensure you are running just what you need.
-To do this: cl Start, cl Settings, cl Taskbar and Start Menu.
-cl Start Menu, cl Customize, cl Remove.
-cl the icon for the program you wish to remove
-then cl Remove.
-This will prevent the program from loading at startup, but will not remove the program from the hard disk.
1.From IE, click Tools, Internet Options
-delete cookies
-delete files (offline files)
-clear history (set days to save to 0 if you want)
-click o.k., and Restart
2.click Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools – run Disk Cleanup
3.Temporarily close Quick Launch:
Right-click on the Taskbar, click Toolbars, deselect Quick Launch
4.Open My Computer
right-click on C:
click Properties
click Tools, select Error Check (check all and fix), when finished click defrag & run.
5.click Start, Run ipconfig renew (type ipconfig space renew)
6.Restart. Right-click on Taskbar, click Toolbars, select Quick Launch to restore
All these things should be done regularly. The more frequently they are run, the less time they take.