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Hard Disk Space
I regularly find useful Win 7 info here (for my PC). I want to
apologize, please no fkaming, for asking a Win XP question (albeit the answer may apply to Win 7? My parents have a Hand Me Down lap top, that they only use for email and simple Excel Spreadsheets. It has ntoceably slowed downed; I am guessing due to the now limited amount of free HD space. I would like to know how to determine which files I can safely remove? For example, given the many installed MSFT updates, all with the capablity of Un-install, I assume that they now have a lot of un-needed files. I am not technical enough to know how to selectively recognize/ remove those and other un-needed files. Are there other files, or settings that would increase the available HD space? Any suggestions, to recover HD space, would be MOST appreciated.. |
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#2
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Hard Disk Space
Crosspost to alt.windows-xp added.
dave wrote: I regularly find useful Win 7 info here (for my PC). I want to apologize, please no fkaming, for asking a Win XP question (albeit the answer may apply to Win 7? My parents have a Hand Me Down lap top, that they only use for email and simple Excel Spreadsheets. It has ntoceably slowed downed; I am guessing due to the now limited amount of free HD space. I would like to know how to determine which files I can safely remove? For example, given the many installed MSFT updates, all with the capablity of Un-install, I assume that they now have a lot of un-needed files. I am not technical enough to know how to selectively recognize/ remove those and other un-needed files. Are there other files, or settings that would increase the available HD space? Any suggestions, to recover HD space, would be MOST appreciated.. Firstly, what are the specs of the laptop? XP Service Pack 3 has much greater hardware requirements (Particularly for memory) than XP originally did. 256Meg on my machines with SP3 is constantly using the pagefile, even before I start running programs. SP1 will run easily in 128Meg. If it has less than a Gigabyte of RAM, upgrading the RAM will make more difference than removing update backup files. If the machine is stable, then this free program:- http://www.tech-pro.net/windows-update-remover.html Gives you the choice of uninstalling updates or removing the backup files, which will give you more HD space, but means that problematic updates can't be removed later. I've used it in the past to run XP on a 4 Gig HD, with some success. -- Tciao for Now! John. |
#3
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Hard Disk Space
dave wrote:
I regularly find useful Win 7 info here (for my PC). I want to apologize, please no fkaming, for asking a Win XP question (albeit the answer may apply to Win 7? My parents have a Hand Me Down lap top, that they only use for email and simple Excel Spreadsheets. It has ntoceably slowed downed; I am guessing due to the now limited amount of free HD space. I would like to know how to determine which files I can safely remove? For example, given the many installed MSFT updates, all with the capablity of Un-install, I assume that they now have a lot of un-needed files. I am not technical enough to know how to selectively recognize/ remove those and other un-needed files. Are there other files, or settings that would increase the available HD space? Any suggestions, to recover HD space, would be MOST appreciated.. It strikes me that you're choosing the wrong option. Clearing HD space will be time-consuming, tricky, require a long learning process before you even start. And then, post facto, it might soon overwhelm you again. What others have done in the same situation is get a larger HD and clone the old one onto it, then replace it. Get a larger HD. You can get old IDE ones very cheap; up to about 250GB at almost give-away prices. Ed |
#4
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On Mon, 28 May 2012 15:46:21 -0400, dave wrote:
I regularly find useful Win 7 info here (for my PC). I want to apologize, please no fkaming, for asking a Win XP question (albeit the answer may apply to Win 7? It's not a flame, but let me say two things: 1. There *are* XP newsgroups and you should ask XP questions there. 2. But since your question pertains equally to Windows 7 and XP, I'll reply; see below. My parents have a Hand Me Down lap top, Hand me down? Did they reinstall Windows when they got it? If I acquired a used computer, no matter who previously owned it, the first thing I would do with it would be to reinstall the operating system cleanly. You have no idea how the computer has been maintained, what has been installed incorrectly, what is missing, what viruses and spyware there may be, etc. I wouldn't want to live with somebody else's mistakes and problems, possibility of kiddy p0rn, etc., and I wouldn't recommend that anyone else do so either. Their choice of course, but in my view, they're playing with fire if they don't reinstall Windows cleanly. that they only use for email and simple Excel Spreadsheets. It has ntoceably slowed downed; I am guessing due to the now limited amount of free HD space. How big is the hard drive? How much free space does it have? How much free space did it have since they got it. How much has it slowed it down (please put a number on it, even if approximate)? Your guess is almost certainly wrong. The amount of free space doesn't affect the speed of the computer. From the little info you've provided, I of course can't tell what's wrong, but my guess would be a malware infection. I would like to know how to determine which files I can safely remove? For example, given the many installed MSFT updates, all with the capablity of Un-install, I assume that they now have a lot of un-needed files. I am not technical enough to know how to selectively recognize/ remove those and other un-needed files. Are there other files, or settings that would increase the available HD space? Uninstalling updates is big no-no. Do not do it! It puts the computer back in the situation it was before the updates--with all the problems and security risks the updates corrected. There are numbers of things they can do to save some space, but it rarely is very much space. And it is almost all temporary. After doing it, they will soon find themselves back in the same situation. |
#6
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Hard Disk Space
dave wrote:
I regularly find useful Win 7 info here (for my PC). I want to apologize, please no fkaming, for asking a Win XP question (albeit the answer may apply to Win 7? My parents have a Hand Me Down lap top, that they only use for email and simple Excel Spreadsheets. It has ntoceably slowed downed; I am guessing due to the now limited amount of free HD space. I would like to know how to determine which files I can safely remove? For example, given the many installed MSFT updates, all with the capablity of Un-install, I assume that they now have a lot of un-needed files. I am not technical enough to know how to selectively recognize/ remove those and other un-needed files. Are there other files, or settings that would increase the available HD space? Any suggestions, to recover HD space, would be MOST appreciated.. The quickest way to make space available, is disable System Restore. And such a suggestion is feasible, if the computer receives regular external backups. (That way, you can restore from a backup, and not be reliant on System Restore any more.) Currently, on my WinXP system, for better or worse, System Restore is disabled. And that allows me to connect Windows 7 disks, with fewer worries of damage. Now, say you disable System Restore completely, then an hour later, the laptop is short of space again. It means some process is "eating" space. Then, your search is a different one. Rather than an easy "free up space" exercise, your mission is to discover what is eating the space. There are certain utilities, of the "undelete" variety, that can store copies of things while you're working. And they can make an awful mess of your storage situation, until they're removed or disabled. You can use the "Disk Cleanup" button, and see what's available for removal. On Windows 7, if you've installed SP1, selecting the right option in a submenu there, will free up around 500MB, which is a drop in the bucket. WinXP has fewer deletion options in its Disk Cleanup, but it is still worth a look. In a file explorer window, you can type %temp% and view the temporary folder. It can sometimes have junk in it, which you can try deleting. As long as no other programs are open, you should meet limited resistance. In Internet Explorer, go to Tools : Internet Options, and look for buttons like Delete Files or Clear History. My brother had a couple Gigabytes of files which were purged when he did that. He had millions of files in his IE cache, after accidentally setting the cache way too big for comfort. At the time, he was doing data mining for a living (payed for each thing he discovered of a certain type), and setting the cache large was his idea of saving references to everything. Except it slowed the machine to a crawl and eventually made the computer useless. It must have taken ten minutes for the deletion to complete :-) The space saved was a drop in the bucket - the real saving was dropping the total number of files on the system by a large factor. (It takes forever to do chkdsk, if you have that many files.) Paul |
#7
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On Mon, 28 May 2012 17:33:07 -0400, Paul
wrote: dave wrote: I regularly find useful Win 7 info here (for my PC). I want to apologize, please no fkaming, for asking a Win XP question (albeit the answer may apply to Win 7? My parents have a Hand Me Down lap top, that they only use for email and simple Excel Spreadsheets. It has ntoceably slowed downed; I am guessing due to the now limited amount of free HD space. I would like to know how to determine which files I can safely remove? For example, given the many installed MSFT updates, all with the capablity of Un-install, I assume that they now have a lot of un-needed files. I am not technical enough to know how to selectively recognize/ remove those and other un-needed files. Are there other files, or settings that would increase the available HD space? Any suggestions, to recover HD space, would be MOST appreciated.. The quickest way to make space available, is disable System Restore. And such a suggestion is feasible, if the computer receives regular external backups. (That way, you can restore from a backup, and not be reliant on System Restore any more.) Currently, on my WinXP system, for better or worse, System Restore is disabled. And that allows me to connect Windows 7 disks, with fewer worries of damage. Now, say you disable System Restore completely, then an hour later, the laptop is short of space again. It means some process is "eating" space. Then, your search is a different one. Rather than an easy "free up space" exercise, your mission is to discover what is eating the space. There are certain utilities, of the "undelete" variety, that can store copies of things while you're working. And they can make an awful mess of your storage situation, until they're removed or disabled. You can use the "Disk Cleanup" button, and see what's available for removal. On Windows 7, if you've installed SP1, selecting the right option in a submenu there, will free up around 500MB, which is a drop in the bucket. WinXP has fewer deletion options in its Disk Cleanup, but it is still worth a look. In a file explorer window, you can type %temp% and view the temporary folder. It can sometimes have junk in it, which you can try deleting. As long as no other programs are open, you should meet limited resistance. In Internet Explorer, go to Tools : Internet Options, and look for buttons like Delete Files or Clear History. My brother had a couple Gigabytes of files which were purged when he did that. He had millions of files in his IE cache, after accidentally setting the cache way too big for comfort. At the time, he was doing data mining for a living (payed for each thing he discovered of a certain type), and setting the cache large was his idea of saving references to everything. Except it slowed the machine to a crawl and eventually made the computer useless. It must have taken ten minutes for the deletion to complete :-) The space saved was a drop in the bucket - the real saving was dropping the total number of files on the system by a large factor. (It takes forever to do chkdsk, if you have that many files.) Paul CCleaner will delete cache files routinely on sartup if so set. And other types if selected. Peter |
#8
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In message , Philip Herlihy
writes: In article , says... Crosspost to alt.windows-xp added. dave wrote: I regularly find useful Win 7 info here (for my PC). I want to apologize, please no fkaming, for asking a Win XP question (albeit the answer may apply to Win 7? I've added another XP 'group. My parents have a Hand Me Down lap top, that they only use for email and simple Excel Spreadsheets. It has ntoceably slowed downed; I am guessing due to the now limited amount of free HD space. I would like to know how to determine which files I can safely remove? For example, given the many installed MSFT updates, all with the capablity of Un-install, I assume that they now have a lot of un-needed files. I am not technical enough to know how to selectively recognize/ remove those and other un-needed files. Are there other files, or settings that would increase the available HD space? Any suggestions, to recover HD space, would be MOST appreciated.. As others have said, unless the HD is _very_ full, it's more likely that it's short of RAM: bring up task manager on it (Ctrl-Alt-Del or right-click on empty part of taskbar, then select Task Manager), and select the Performance tab. If the PF Usage column is frequently above (or even approaches) the Physical Memory figure below, you need more RAM. As for why this has happened, see below (basically XP's demands have grown since it started). Firstly, what are the specs of the laptop? XP Service Pack 3 has much greater hardware requirements (Particularly for memory) than XP originally did. 256Meg on my machines with SP3 is constantly using the pagefile, even before I start running programs. SP1 will run easily in 128Meg. If it has less than a Gigabyte of RAM, upgrading the RAM will make more difference than removing update backup files. If the machine is stable, then this free program:- http://www.tech-pro.net/windows-update-remover.html Gives you the choice of uninstalling updates or removing the backup files, which will give you more HD space, but means that problematic updates can't be removed later. I've used it in the past to run XP on a 4 Gig HD, with some success. Lack of disk space can slow a machine to a crawl when it's close to 100% full - requiring all new files to be split into fragments. Weeding and defragmenting can then make a startling difference. John's advice on memory is sound: for XP SP2 or SP3 768MB is a minimum for light users with 1GB a minimum for busier ones. Meanwhile, right-click the C: drive and pick properties. Plenty of pink? Less than a quarter free space is getting tight. On that panel, click "Disk Cleanup" and see what you can purge. On the "More Options" tab, you can also purge old System Restore points, which can release a lot of space on an irregularly-weeded machine (don't do this if the machine isn't otherwise running well). Then, when you have enough space, download from piriform.com the celebrated ccleaner and also defraggler. Run ccleaner first, then defraggler, and in the latter check the option to run a boot-time defrag which defrags system files (see help to locate that option). All this is perfectly safe (unless you use temp folders and the Recycle bin as convenient storage for vital files). It's also a good idea to run Add/Remove programs (Control Panel) and see what programs can usefully be removed - games are particular space-hogs. If you want to go a bit further, Revo Uninstaller is good at detecting left-overs which can also be deleted when you uninstall stuff - major antivirus packages are particularly bad this way. Also run Task Manager to see if the machine is CPU-bound, and use the Processes tab to see what's responsible. -- J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G.5AL-IS-P--Ch++(p)Ar@T0H+Sh0!:`)DNAf I'm the only person who won scholarships to both Eton and Wellington with a mathematics score of nought. - Christopher Lee (1997). |
#9
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In message , Ed Cryer
writes: dave wrote: [] Any suggestions, to recover HD space, would be MOST appreciated.. (Although dave asked about HD, I suspect it's RAM that's running short. Unless the HD is _very_ full - and also, it's the absolute amount free that's important, not percentage, as some have said, though if it's a big disc but still nearly full, clearing out unnecessary stuff still doesn't hurt.) It strikes me that you're choosing the wrong option. Clearing HD space will be time-consuming, tricky, require a long learning process before you even start. And then, post facto, it might soon overwhelm you again. What others have done in the same situation is get a larger HD and clone the old one onto it, then replace it. Get a larger HD. You can get old IDE ones very cheap; up to about 250GB at almost give-away prices. Laptop ones? Ed -- J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G.5AL-IS-P--Ch++(p)Ar@T0H+Sh0!:`)DNAf I'm the only person who won scholarships to both Eton and Wellington with a mathematics score of nought. - Christopher Lee (1997). |
#10
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In message , Ken Blake
writes: On Mon, 28 May 2012 15:46:21 -0400, dave wrote: I regularly find useful Win 7 info here (for my PC). I want to apologize, please no fkaming, for asking a Win XP question (albeit the answer may apply to Win 7? It's not a flame, but let me say two things: 1. There *are* XP newsgroups and you should ask XP questions there. 2. But since your question pertains equally to Windows 7 and XP, I'll reply; see below. My parents have a Hand Me Down lap top, Hand me down? Did they reinstall Windows when they got it? If I acquired a used computer, no matter who previously owned it, the first thing I would do with it would be to reinstall the operating system cleanly. You have no idea how the computer has been maintained, what has been installed incorrectly, what is missing, what viruses and spyware there may be, etc. I wouldn't want to live with somebody else's mistakes and problems, possibility of kiddy p0rn, etc., and I wouldn't recommend that anyone else do so either. Their choice of course, but in my view, they're playing with fire if they don't reinstall Windows cleanly. Please try to hold back your reflex (AKA knee-jerk) reaction. Though good advice, it's almost certainly not relevant to the issue at hand here, as dave said it _has_ slowed (by implication _since_ they've had it), not it _is_ slow. Also assuming everybody who passes on a laptop is incompetent and/or deviant, though a safe philosophy, isn't always correct - and reinstalling Windows (even assuming one has the relevant discs, especially drivers for an old laptop) isn't easy for everyone. that they only use for email and simple Excel Spreadsheets. It has ntoceably slowed downed; I am guessing due to the now limited amount of free HD space. How big is the hard drive? How much free space does it have? How much free space did it have since they got it. How much has it slowed it down (please put a number on it, even if approximate)? That _would_ indeed be of interest. Your guess is almost certainly wrong. The amount of free space doesn't affect the speed of the computer. From the little info you've provided, I of course can't tell what's wrong, but my guess would be a malware infection. And _mine_ would be RAM shortage. (As others have said, _very_ little free disc space - though not, as they've said, in percentage terms - _can_ slow it.) I would like to know how to determine which files I can safely remove? For example, given the many installed MSFT updates, all with the capablity of Un-install, I assume that they now have a lot of un-needed files. I am not technical enough to know how to selectively recognize/ remove those and other un-needed files. Are there other files, or settings that would increase the available HD space? Uninstalling updates is big no-no. Do not do it! It puts the computer back in the situation it was before the updates--with all the problems and security risks the updates corrected. I'd agree with that (though the _security_ aspects are less for the average user than often claimed). There are numbers of things they can do to save some space, but it rarely is very much space. And it is almost all temporary. After doing it, they will soon find themselves back in the same situation. Well, it depends what was causing it, but on the whole, you are correct. -- J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G.5AL-IS-P--Ch++(p)Ar@T0H+Sh0!:`)DNAf I'm the only person who won scholarships to both Eton and Wellington with a mathematics score of nought. - Christopher Lee (1997). |
#11
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In message , "J. P. Gilliver
(John)" writes In message , Philip Herlihy writes: In article , says... Crosspost to alt.windows-xp added. dave wrote: I regularly find useful Win 7 info here (for my PC). I want to apologize, please no fkaming, for asking a Win XP question (albeit the answer may apply to Win 7? I've added another XP 'group. My parents have a Hand Me Down lap top, that they only use for email and simple Excel Spreadsheets. It has ntoceably slowed downed; I am guessing due to the now limited amount of free HD space. I would like to know how to determine which files I can safely remove? For example, given the many installed MSFT updates, all with the capablity of Un-install, I assume that they now have a lot of un-needed files. I am not technical enough to know how to selectively recognize/ remove those and other un-needed files. Are there other files, or settings that would increase the available HD space? Any suggestions, to recover HD space, would be MOST appreciated.. As others have said, unless the HD is _very_ full, it's more likely that it's short of RAM: bring up task manager on it (Ctrl-Alt-Del or right-click on empty part of taskbar, then select Task Manager), and select the Performance tab. If the PF Usage column is frequently above (or even approaches) the Physical Memory figure below, you need more RAM. As for why this has happened, see below (basically XP's demands have grown since it started). Firstly, what are the specs of the laptop? XP Service Pack 3 has much greater hardware requirements (Particularly for memory) than XP originally did. 256Meg on my machines with SP3 is constantly using the pagefile, even before I start running programs. SP1 will run easily in 128Meg. If it has less than a Gigabyte of RAM, upgrading the RAM will make more difference than removing update backup files. If the machine is stable, then this free program:- http://www.tech-pro.net/windows-update-remover.html Gives you the choice of uninstalling updates or removing the backup files, which will give you more HD space, but means that problematic updates can't be removed later. I've used it in the past to run XP on a 4 Gig HD, with some success. Lack of disk space can slow a machine to a crawl when it's close to 100% full - requiring all new files to be split into fragments. Weeding and defragmenting can then make a startling difference. John's advice on memory is sound: for XP SP2 or SP3 768MB is a minimum for light users with 1GB a minimum for busier ones. Meanwhile, right-click the C: drive and pick properties. Plenty of pink? Less than a quarter free space is getting tight. On that panel, click "Disk Cleanup" and see what you can purge. On the "More Options" tab, you can also purge old System Restore points, which can release a lot of space on an irregularly-weeded machine (don't do this if the machine isn't otherwise running well). Then, when you have enough space, download from piriform.com the celebrated ccleaner and also defraggler. Run ccleaner first, then defraggler, and in the latter check the option to run a boot-time defrag which defrags system files (see help to locate that option). All this is perfectly safe (unless you use temp folders and the Recycle bin as convenient storage for vital files). It's also a good idea to run Add/Remove programs (Control Panel) and see what programs can usefully be removed - games are particular space-hogs. If you want to go a bit further, Revo Uninstaller is good at detecting left-overs which can also be deleted when you uninstall stuff - major antivirus packages are particularly bad this way. Also run Task Manager to see if the machine is CPU-bound, and use the Processes tab to see what's responsible. 'RAMpage' (freeware) is a handy tool. It sits as an icon in the system tray, and gives you a real-time monitor how much free memory you have. [It can also be used for freeing up memory - but I've never used this.] http://www.jfitz.com/software/RAMpage/index.htm Note that, with Version 1.6, the icon only shows the last three digits (in MB). [If you happen to have 1.5GB or more of memory, and you see (for example) 007, you almost certainly have 1007MB, so don't panic. If you really do want four (tiny) digits, use V1.61.] -- Ian |
#12
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Part of original post:
My parents have a Hand Me Down lap top, that they only use for email and simple Excel Spreadsheets. It has noticeably slowed downed; I am guessing due to the now limited amount of free HD space. The following advice is based on actual experience with an aging laptop on XP Home/SP4. No speculation, no guessing. It works. Watch what the machine does. If the HDD activity light is on much of the time, the machine is swapping page files from RAM to onto the HDD and back again. We had the same issue with my wife's old laptop (now 7 years old), doubled RAM to 2GB and it was like a new machine, more than twice as fast in "user experience." An additional source of slow-down is garbage that builds up on the registry etc. Use CCleaner (free) to get rid of junk files, and use its registry tool to get rid of obsolete registry junk. Also use Revo Uninstall to get rid of any programs your parents don't need. (Windows uninstall leaves junk behind.) These two measures will improve performance 10-25%. Best bet is to get as much RAM into the machine as it will take. If it's around 5-7 years old, it should handle 2GB of RAM or more. You'll have to find out the specs of the machine, so search on "[machine-model] specifications", and check each hit until you find out maximum RAM supported, and what type. If it can support more than it already has, search on the RAM type. New Egg, Tiger Direct, etc, may still have it. Be aware that older memory is expensive. You should (IMO must) buy all new RAM: mixing old and new memory sticks may cause glitches. Changing RAM on a laptop is slightly tricky, so if you don't trust yourself to do it, you may have to spend additional cash. I suggest that if buying and installing new RAM will cost around $150-200, it may be a better investment to get a new (or newer) machine by spending more. Double the outlay will buy much, much more than double the performance. FWIW, I bought my wife a new laptop, about 4x as capable, for $550, $100 _less_ than I paid for the old one. But if the machine is much older than 5-7 years, or supports 1GB RAM max, it's time to retire it, or investigate Linux, I think. The old laptop now runs LinuxMint (a version of Ubuntu), a much better OS for old hardware than any version of Windows IMO. It's our travelling machine, because it's more difficult to invade a Linux machine than a Windows one. HTH, Wolf K. |
#13
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"J. P. Gilliver (John)" wrote in message
... In message , Ken Blake writes: On Mon, 28 May 2012 15:46:21 -0400, dave wrote: I regularly find useful Win 7 info here (for my PC). I want to apologize, please no fkaming, for asking a Win XP question (albeit the answer may apply to Win 7? It's not a flame, but let me say two things: 1. There *are* XP newsgroups and you should ask XP questions there. 2. But since your question pertains equally to Windows 7 and XP, I'll reply; see below. My parents have a Hand Me Down lap top, Hand me down? Did they reinstall Windows when they got it? If I acquired a used computer, no matter who previously owned it, the first thing I would do with it would be to reinstall the operating system cleanly. You have no idea how the computer has been maintained, what has been installed incorrectly, what is missing, what viruses and spyware there may be, etc. I wouldn't want to live with somebody else's mistakes and problems, possibility of kiddy p0rn, etc., and I wouldn't recommend that anyone else do so either. Their choice of course, but in my view, they're playing with fire if they don't reinstall Windows cleanly. Please try to hold back your reflex (AKA knee-jerk) reaction. Though good advice, it's almost certainly not relevant to the issue at hand here, as dave said it _has_ slowed (by implication _since_ they've had it), not it _is_ slow. Also assuming everybody who passes on a laptop is incompetent and/or deviant, though a safe philosophy, isn't always correct - and reinstalling Windows (even assuming one has the relevant discs, especially drivers for an old laptop) isn't easy for everyone. that they only use for email and simple Excel Spreadsheets. It has ntoceably slowed downed; I am guessing due to the now limited amount of free HD space. How big is the hard drive? How much free space does it have? How much free space did it have since they got it. How much has it slowed it down (please put a number on it, even if approximate)? That _would_ indeed be of interest. Your guess is almost certainly wrong. The amount of free space doesn't affect the speed of the computer. From the little info you've provided, I of course can't tell what's wrong, but my guess would be a malware infection. And _mine_ would be RAM shortage. (As others have said, _very_ little free disc space - though not, as they've said, in percentage terms - _can_ slow it.) I would like to know how to determine which files I can safely remove? For example, given the many installed MSFT updates, all with the capablity of Un-install, I assume that they now have a lot of un-needed files. I am not technical enough to know how to selectively recognize/ remove those and other un-needed files. Are there other files, or settings that would increase the available HD space? Uninstalling updates is big no-no. Do not do it! It puts the computer back in the situation it was before the updates--with all the problems and security risks the updates corrected. I'd agree with that (though the _security_ aspects are less for the average user than often claimed). There are numbers of things they can do to save some space, but it rarely is very much space. And it is almost all temporary. After doing it, they will soon find themselves back in the same situation. Well, it depends what was causing it, but on the whole, you are correct. This appeared in the xp.general newsgroup without benefit of the original post and possibly other posts with info. So far, I see nothing from the OP that gives any specs for the computer.... hard drive size, installed RAM, free drive space. While there have been a lot of good suggestions, they are all speculation without those specs. Additionally, on ANY older computer with a speed complaint, the FIRST course of action should always be to back up all data and run a hard drive diagnostic from bootable media (like Hitachi DFT or Seagate SeaTools). Then the specs should be obtained, and if feasible, a malware check should be run, again using bootable media such as Kaspersky's Rescue CD. Once those checks have been passed, these other suggestions are good... but not before. So far, all I am seeing is conjecture based on no backing information. -- Glen Ventura MS MVP Oct. 2002 - Sept. 2009 CompTIA A+ |
#14
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Hard Disk Space
In message , Wolf K
writes: Part of original post: My parents have a Hand Me Down lap top, that they only use for email and simple Excel Spreadsheets. It has noticeably slowed downed; I am guessing due to the now limited amount of free HD space. The following advice is based on actual experience with an aging laptop on XP Home/SP4. No speculation, no guessing. It works. SP4? Watch what the machine does. If the HDD activity light is on much of the time, the machine is swapping page files from RAM to onto the HDD and back again. We had the same issue with my wife's old laptop (now 7 years old), doubled RAM to 2GB and it was like a new machine, more than twice as fast in "user experience." Did the same with my brother's laptop, except we went up to 1G (I can't remember whether it was 256M or 512, I think the latter). An additional source of slow-down is garbage that builds up on the registry etc. Use CCleaner (free) to get rid of junk files, and use its registry tool to get rid of obsolete registry junk. Also use Revo Uninstall to get rid of any programs your parents don't need. (Windows uninstall leaves junk behind.) These two measures will improve performance 10-25%. Best bet is to get as much RAM into the machine as it will take. If it's around 5-7 years old, it should handle 2GB of RAM or more. [] yourself to do it, you may have to spend additional cash. I suggest that if buying and installing new RAM will cost around $150-200, it may be a better investment to get a new (or newer) machine by spending Wow, definitely! I think the 1G for my brother's was about 30 or 40 pounds, including fitting. (It was very simple, as it happens, and I _could_ have done it, but we didn't know it was going to be, and the extra [at our local PC World] was worth it for in-case-it-doesn't-work.) more. Double the outlay will buy much, much more than double the performance. FWIW, I bought my wife a new laptop, about 4x as capable, for $550, $100 _less_ than I paid for the old one. Even the cheapest netbook - around 220 pounds in UK - will knock spots off anything a few years old (though will be Windows 7). But if the machine is much older than 5-7 years, or supports 1GB RAM max, it's time to retire it, or investigate Linux, I think. The old Steady on. 1G made brother's machine pretty fast, to the extent that he decided to stay with it (I'd have gone for the 2G as it wasn't that much more, but he said by the time it got that slow again it _would_ be time to buy a new PC). Also: this netbook I'm typing on came with 1G, which seemed fine for most things: Skype has problems, so I tried upping it to 2G - which didn't help Skype, and didn't make any noticeable difference to anything else. (My PF usage usually sits around 700, so I wasn't surprised.) I'd certainly agree fit as much RAM as the machine will take (2G here), but if that's only 1G, that's definitely not a reason to discard it or turn it into a penguin - it can be perfectly usable (on XP SP3 - I suspect it'd struggle on 7, but I assume it's far from a 7 machine). [] -- J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G.5AL-IS-P--Ch++(p)Ar@T0H+Sh0!:`)DNAf "He marches to the beat of a different tuba" - Tom Galloway |
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Hard Disk Space
In message , glee
writes: "J. P. Gilliver (John)" wrote in message ... In message , Ken Blake writes: [] Hand me down? Did they reinstall Windows when they got it? If I acquired a used computer, no matter who previously owned it, the first thing I would do with it would be to reinstall the operating system [] Please try to hold back your reflex (AKA knee-jerk) reaction. Though good advice, it's almost certainly not relevant to the issue at hand [] I would like to know how to determine which files I can safely remove? [] Well, it depends what was causing it, but on the whole, you are correct. This appeared in the xp.general newsgroup without benefit of the original post and possibly other posts with info. So far, I see Sorry; the gist (originally posted in the 7 'group, but specified as XP) was that the OP's parents had a hand-down laptop which had recently slowed down, and he assumed it was disc filling up, and asked for advice on what to remove. Several of us have advised that it's not necessarily a fullish HD that's the problem (including me who strongly suspects it's now-insufficient RAM). [] Additionally, on ANY older computer with a speed complaint, the FIRST course of action should always be to back up all data and run a hard drive diagnostic from bootable media (like Hitachi DFT or Seagate Good advice, but rather prescriptive! Kblake said first thing to do with a s/h laptop is reformat and reinstall the OS; you say first thing to do with a slow computer is (back up and) suspect the HD. I would say - though not as forcefully (-:! - check PF usage against real RAM: if it's greater, then that's why things are slow. But certainly getting and running the HD manufacturer's disc diagnostic is a good idea too. (I'm not so sure about reinstalling the OS, unless you have a fairly good idea that something is wrong, or that the previous owner was criminal.) But I'd say check the RAM usage first, simply because it's so easy to do. SeaTools). Then the specs should be obtained, and if feasible, a malware check should be run, again using bootable media such as Kaspersky's Rescue CD. Once those checks have been passed, these other suggestions are good... but not before. So far, all I am seeing is conjecture based on no backing information. Again, I'd say checking RAM usage since it's about the simplest. Of course, if it does show you're using more RAM than you actually have, then you can wonder _why_, and do all the above things. (Though if usage has only recently gone over the threshold, it can make for a sudden drop in performance.) -- J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G.5AL-IS-P--Ch++(p)Ar@T0H+Sh0!:`)DNAf "He marches to the beat of a different tuba" - Tom Galloway |
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