Computer Question....

Indifference71

So I'm not exactly a computer whiz. I have a Dell laptop thats prob a year and half old and it goes so f'n slow. Drives me nuts. It's most likely because I have so much music and not much space left on my hard drive. I'm also thinking it could be due to Windows Vista which I know a lot of people have had problems with.


If I were to buy an external hard drive and transfer all my music there, would that speed up my operating system? I have already upgraded the RAM to the highest capability this computer can handle. Thanks for any help....

cableguy119

Ok Yes backup your music to a external hard drive. Back all your documents up too never hurts to have backups.

Try to make sure you have at least 20% free space. After removing that much data from your hard disk you will need to defragment your disk. Defrag alone could give you a bump in performance.

how much RAM do you have? Max it out 2gb or 4gb visit crucial.com and run the scan it will recomend memory. While your slots maybe full there may be a chance to get 2 GB by running 2 1 GB sticks or 4 GB by running 2-2gb sticks. Max it out.

Don't believe the advertising about Vista it works and is pretty solid. This thread is about getting you running better and not PC vs Apple so I will stop at that.

Backup, defrag mess around and then maybe explore memory.

yoke

cableguy119 wrote:

Ok Yes backup your music to a external hard drive. Back all your documents up too never hurts to have backups.

Try to make sure you have at least 20% free space. After removing that much data from your hard disk you will need to defragment your disk. Defrag alone could give you a bump in performance.

how much RAM do you have? Max it out 2gb or 4gb visit crucial.com and run the scan it will recomend memory. While your slots maybe full there may be a chance to get 2 GB by running 2 1 GB sticks or 4 GB by running 2-2gb sticks. Max it out.

Don't believe the advertising about Vista it works and is pretty solid. This thread is about getting you running better and not PC vs Apple so I will stop at that.

Backup, defrag mess around and then maybe explore memory.

Yes what he he said.. I was going to take it a step further and tell you to setup a RAID array but I don't know how much you know about computers etc.. so I dont want to confuse you.. Grab your self an External, I have a 2 500gig Mybooks that work pretty well(I have one backing to the other).

Indifference71

Thanks a lot for the help.

DeLukin

Then download a (free) spyware app like adaware and run it. You'd be amazed at how much stuff it picks up - stuff that can slow your computer if you surf the web a lot.

yoke

Oh, I almost forgot.. Now this may sound dumb but its not. Make sure you clear your desktop of folders,photos,pictures etc.. Keep your desktop clear as this eats up your memory as well. Keep the basic stuff on your desktop only and put everything else in the proper folders in your documents and what not.

brother123

I can't remember the program but I think it's something like CCCleaner or something. Run that it should be free the last time I checked.

It will clean your system pretty well. Other than that just follow the tips other users have posted and you should be fine.

halszka123

First question- do You have partitions on Your hard drive? I mean - do You see drive c:, d:, or else?
I don't know anything about Vista, well after using XP and windows 98 I canm tell - after a few months is normal to see systemis slowly. So - dl Your data to external disc (You can worry about RAID or not - I use external disc to save my data, when I don't need it, i just unplug it).
then - copy Your private folders, mails, adresses, favourites in IE or another browser, your passwords etc, etc.
then - don't believe programs to clean up Your registry and stuff like this. Just format You hard drive, create partitions for Vista and another for data, and reinstall Vista with all programs again. (Question - I guess is simply as it was before Vista, isn't it?)