Should I reformat my hard disk? help!

Papillon22

I understand nothing about this topic, so be patient!

I have a compaq presario laptop that I bought used and have had for 4 years. It's been running super slow, and I'm getting sick of it. Right now there's 18.5Go free out of 69Go in my C drive, and 1.30Go free out of 4.71 in my D drive (which is the backup/recovery drive, I *think*).
Anyway, I've transfered a lot of data to an external hard drive; deleted programs I don't use and ran the antivirus. It's still slow. Would you recommend reformatting the C drive or something else?

If I do this, will I also lose windows/explorer/etc? I remember seeing something about going back to factory settings, would that prevent losing windows?

Thanks.

asyouseefit

Have you tried defragmenting your hard disk? It improves performance without deleting anything.

Also how many rams do you have?

rgoodearl

Hi,

I would try this prior to reformating your hard drive.

http://www.iobit.com/advancedsystemcareper.html

This is a free program that is a great utility for cleaning and speeding up your pc.

I've used this programs for years and think it is one of the best.

Good luck

Helice

when hard drives get full they start to slow down.
it could be good to re-fragment it.
or u could buy a bigger hard drive..
external storage devices take longer to load data from, because im assuming ur only using usb2, and that is quite slow..

on a side not how long have u had ur laptop for?
more than 2 years and i personally would just buy a new one..
but u should proberlly keep urs for like 5 years or something..

McKayMachina

I've had my PC for 7 years and it still runs great! I am also down to about 20 gigs. Don't really want to go less than 20 for the optimal speed of most software/processes, so try this:

DEFRAG WALKTHROUGH: http://www.colby-sawyer.edu/information/technology/updates/slowcomputer.html
ALTERNATE LINK: http://www.debog.com/slow-computer/defrag.htm

Also, consider downloading Avast (free antivirus software) and doing a scan. It could be that a few malicious files have found their way onto your PC. Running an antivirus scan will allow you to find malicious files and "move them to the chest" where they can't harm your PC any longer. I recommend Avast over AVG or any other free antivirus program from experience. Also, if you have Norton or McAfee, I'd recommend deleting those from the Control Panel>Programs list. They are super process-heavy and clash with the performance of certain other common programs. But make sure you have an alternative antivirus before doing so.

Any pictures or videos stored on your HD, consider uploading to sites like YouTube and Photobucket. This will clear up some space. In my case, it cleared up over 2 extra gigs.

I hope it helps!

EDITED TO ADD: I read that you did some of this already. I included the extra steps for anyone else reading this topic who may not have moved/deleted files yet or run antivirus.

julzmm

Defragment your drives. download a good Drive cleaner utility. Some have been mentioned. We use C Cleaner. Make sure these programs will clear your temp internet files too. If you go into Options on IExplorer you can delete these files without downloading these programs. Look for programs you dont use anymore and uninstall them.
Dont go back to factory settings. You wont lose IE but you would lose programs you want and have put on yourself and if you have lost activation codes etc you wont get them on again legally.

These utility programs will also check your registry files for items that are there but never used anymore so its a good idea to use them.

If you right click your drives in My Computer and open properties, you can do a disk cleanup, and defragment your drives.

Check for Malware etc. you can download free programs to do this too and once it is checked you can then remove it again so its not using space