Hard drive needs cleaned up

Cat72

Hi
How to you stop some of the start up programs as their is several I dont want to start running with the computer.But I dont want to delete the programs.I have xp ORIGINAL

dccarm

Got to Start and then select 'Run'. Type MSconfig and return.

There is a tab on MSconfig called startup and it lists all the programs you want to run at startup. Untick the ones you don't want. And be careful! I don't think MSconfig is the kind of thing of thing you want to be messing with.

Cat72

Thanks , if you dont hear back from me you know I have over done it ! Actually was cleaning up earlier and deleted all my tracking cookies.... including my login for this site.Whoops !

Chippy_Minton

Three more ways to free up drive space on Windows XP:

1. Delete system restore points. If you have system restore turned on (it's on by default), and you install some software, Windows saves copies of the files changed by the installation in a special hidden folder. If you're happy that your computer is running OK (and don't need to restore it to a previous point) then you can delete the files from all but the last restore point. Do this using Disk Cleanup (which can also be used to delete other temporary files) as follows:

Start - All Programs - Accessories - System Tools - Disk Cleanup (let it complete the calculation process) - More Options tab - and then Clean Up under System Restore.

2. Delete the backup files created by Windows Update. These are stored in C:\WINDOWS with folder names like C:\WINDOWS\$NtUninstallKB834707$\. They can be deleted manually or using this XP Hotfix Backup removal utility, which also removes the entries from Add/Remove Programs.

3. If you've installed SP2 and told it to backup previous Windows files, these are saved in C:\WINDOWS\$NtServicePackUninstall$. This folder can also be deleted if you're happy that you don't need to uninstall SP2 (the utility above doesn't delete it).

gk172

Cat72 wrote:

Hi.
My computer is 4 years old and only has a 40gb hard drive. The processor speed is pentium 4 1.5ghz .It has been running a bit sluggish and did all the usual anti spyware, virus checks came up ok. i always do these regularily and have been very lucky to be virus bug free.
Strarting to think it is the hard drive being a bit old and am trying to clean it out. Have ran a defrag but was wondering if there is anything else I can do to clean out the hard drive that is free and easy ( Im not a computer buffin !).
Please dont say its time for a new one as this cost me a pretty penny 4 years ago and im skint now !
Thanks - i hope......

Ive just had similar problems brought to light with a little accident, my pc was really bad slow sluggish and crashing, went through every thing you have done and i even reformatted but that didnt help, i got advice from someone who recomended i test the hard drive with a programe from the harddrive website which proved no faults on hard drive i then went through a total clean of the hard drive done through the same programe which took 9 hours (hardrive 80gb) but my pc is running much faster now and so far no problems. My hard dive is a maxtor went to maxtor.com and downloaded power max if that is any help.

duncansby

Hi

This might be a bit too techy for what you are looking for, but it's worth a try if your computer is slowing down a lot.

Click on Start the Run, then type msconfig - a box will open. Click on startup and it will show you every program that is opening when you start the computer. There will probably be lots there from downloads and software installs that you don't need and slow your computer down. Also pressing ctrl+alt+del then processes will show you what programs are running in the background

This link http://www.liutilities.com/products/wintaskspro/processlibrary/system/
helps to identify which you need and which you don't, as does this one
http://www.answersthatwork.com/Tasklist_pages/tasklist.htm

Failing that run a google search on any programs that are starting to find out more about them. You can then disable any you don't need. Next time you start your computer you might get a windows box telling you that you've made system changes, you may click on don't show me again.

mustaphaupyebum

google windows tweaks and whatever you are running...me 98se xp
you will find loads of sites giving info about windows and how to speed it up
be careful with any registry changes though!

PhiL_P_3

Quick tip to speed up IE (Internet Explorer):-

1) From IE select "Internet Options" from the "Tools" menu.
2) Click "Settings" in the "Temporary Internet Files" box.
3) Change the "Amount of disk space to use:" entry to 50MB.

The default setting is based on the size of the Windows partition and is usually hundreds of megabytes, if not gigabytes; completely over the top when you consider the size of the average website and it will eventually slow down IE due to the amount of stored data.

Note to any technophobes - don't worry, it won't cause any ill-effects!