mwg
Member
Registered: 19th Feb 04
Location: South Lakes
User status: Offline
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How do I give my laptop a bit of a clear out/freshen up? The past few months its been running a bit slowly. Start up is painful.
Its got an alright spec (4GB RAM, 2.26GHz Core 2 Duo Processor, 320GB HD) and its not even 18 months old.
The HD has about 165GB spare on it. Got rid of Norton ages ago cos that was slowing it down massively.
What can I do? Vista maybe is part of the problem but it used to be mega fast!
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Brett
Premium Member
Registered: 16th Dec 02
Location: Manchester
User status: Offline
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I usually do a format every 6 months or so personally. I have all my personal stuff on an external drive anyway.
I'd scrap Vista too tbh.
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Marc
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Registered: 11th Aug 02
Location: York
User status: Offline
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Take a look at what you have installed and whether you need it all. Pictures, videos, porn etc. Get rid of the crap you don't need. Including Received Files, amazing how much you amass.
I'd also make sure you're clearing the Temporary Internet Files as that can take up a lot.
Then I'd do a defrag, may not be that bad if its only 18 months but worth checking.
Then I'd see what crap came preinstalled that you don't need - Interent trials etc etc.
Failing all that and its still slow you might want to do a clean install.
Edit - Just seen how much you have spare. I'd de frag then format if its still playing up.
[Edited on 07-04-2010 by Marc]
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mwg
Member
Registered: 19th Feb 04
Location: South Lakes
User status: Offline
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Cheers. I should probably get an external HD anyway for backing up anyway.
I'll set it off doing a defrag tonight and see how it goes.
I plan on going to Windows 7 at some point too so I guess I'd have to start from scratch to do that and the external drive would come in handy again for that.
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mwg
Member
Registered: 19th Feb 04
Location: South Lakes
User status: Offline
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Am I right in thinking that I have to wipe my hard drive and lose everything to install Windows 7? Is there no way of just being able to upgrade from Vista to it?
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Marc
Member
Registered: 11th Aug 02
Location: York
User status: Offline
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No, it should back up as you install.
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mwg
Member
Registered: 19th Feb 04
Location: South Lakes
User status: Offline
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So I dont actually need an External Hard Drive to install Windows 7 then. I might just go for it and sack Vista off.
This any good or can I get it cheaper anywhere else?
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Microsoft-Windows-Premium-Upgrade-Vista/dp/B002DGS81C/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=software&qid=1270719446&sr=8-1
Whats the difference between 32-bit and 64-bit?
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mwg
Member
Registered: 19th Feb 04
Location: South Lakes
User status: Offline
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BTW I looked last night and my laptop has been set to de frag once a week since I got it so that side of it was ok. I went in to msconfig and turned some stuff off that was booting up on start up but it hasn't made a difference.
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Fro
Member
Registered: 20th Jun 06
Location: Rainham, Essex Drives: A3 2.0TDi Sport
User status: Offline
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Do you keep alot of folders/files on your desktop (not including shortcuts)? I found this slowed down my work comp and home comp alot. Moved the ones i wanted to keep to another location and shortcutted the most used ones and both seem to perform better.
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mwg
Member
Registered: 19th Feb 04
Location: South Lakes
User status: Offline
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I dont have any files, folders or even shortcuts on my desktop. Nice and clutter free 
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