just curious...

[nickuss]

The computer im using now is about 2-3 years old and is very sluggish. I'm gonna buy some more ram soon to up it from 64mb. Anyways, the HDD has only ever been formatted once(when first installed). Is it worth my while to backup the files i need, format and reinstall windows. I've read that doing that takes the computer back to "as new" condition. Its a pain in the backside waiting for the HD to click its way to success. Thanks loads.


Love this site....thanks pcmech and forumers.

[Force Flow]

It is, if you are having a lot of problems. Before you do that though, try cleaning out your temporary interent files folder, temp folder and cookies folder. Then try defragging the HDD.

[Confused]

Have you ever ran maintenance? If not, that can improve system performance. Click Start, programs, accessories, system tools. From there run Disk cleanup. that run Scandisk and then run Disk defragmenter.

These are best run from safe mode. If you choose not to run from safe mode then you must stop all active programs and screensavers. Any disk activity causes defragmenter to start over, thus it's better to do it from safe mode.
Chas

[Cricket]

Hi nickuss,

If your computer is 2 to 3 years old and that's the original installation of Windows, then yes it would be a good idea to save your data, format and re-install Windows. Cleaning up your temp files and running defrag will help to get your system running a little better now, but Windows does degrade over time, system files become corrupt, the Registry gets bloated and performance suffers because of all this.

Cricket

[trulad]

Also get at least 128mb of ram. 64mb doesn't cut it with Windows anymore.
Trudy

[GaryRouth]

Hmm . . . and if you haven't bought memory before, a fail-safe place to buy is from Crucial. They have a "Memory Selector" on their website that will help you find an exact match for the motherboard in your system. Have the make/model of your system ready (or the make/model of the motherboard - it's usually silkscreened onto the motherboard) ready. They are a top manufacturer (an online branch of Micron), have free shipping, lifetime warranties, and an excellent reputation - to go along with very reasonable prices. Here's the link: http://www.crucial.com

. . . Gary

[nickuss]

thanks for the replies...i will actually schedule a format-reinstall over the summer break. Does anybody know if crucial memory is available in Australia? I think i would trust a brand name a lot more than the generics.

[kittyfire]

Summer's a long way off... when you say "click its way to success..." Errr... is the hard drive chirping at you? If it's getting overly friendly and trying to communicate through noises, it's going to be worth your while to back up anything that you deem important and don't want to lose.

Before you defrag and all that good stuff...

Go to add/remove programs. Anything you don't recognize and don't need, uninstall it.

Go to start then run then type msconfig in the blank. Hit enter or click okay, whichever makes you purr. Go to the startup tab. If you've not formatted your system in a long time, then I'd imagine you have a rather large list of items trying to start up every time Windows loads. Anything less than necessary, uncheck it. In fact... leave scanreg, systray, any anti-virus software. Uncheck everything else. You'll be shocked at how much faster you boot up. If you're not sure about some things, post a list here of what all's in your startup and we'll all give you our 2 cents on what can stay and what needs to go.

Go to start, settings, control panel and go into internet options. Delete your temporary internet files and clear the history. Make sure you're running 5.5 with service pack 2 or 6.0 so you won't have the ever growing cache that never gets cleared problem.

Only after removing everything you don't need should you run the scandisk and defrag. Otherwise, you'll need to do it again after doing those things.

::big hugs:: Good luck!

[nickuss]

its summer already, in fact 5 days ago was the first day of summer. Anyway, I meant "the hard drive clicking itself to success" as in it just keeps churning & churning processing stuff, probably from swapfile. Anyway, ill just do the deed and format. The only time the computer was formated was when it was new, in 1999. Thanks, Nick.

[Nuclear Krusader]

Kittyfire, remember nickuss lives in the south hemisphere.

[GaryRouth]

Hi again

nickuss - not sure about an Australian Crucial site. Pretty sure that there's one in the U.K., and of course here in the U.S. . . . I figure it's a 50/50 chance. If they don't have a local Australian site or outlet, their memory is likely carried by independent vendors in your area anyway - and you can still use the "Memory Selector" to find out what sort of memory matches your system (of course if you have the mobo manual, then you don't need Crucial's selector).

It's late at night hereabouts, I'm off for some dreamtime.
. . . Gary

[mike breck]

There you go.

http://www.crucial.com/uk/pvtcontent...ALIA&submit=Go

3-5 days delivery from Scotland ain't so bad.

However, you need to find out what import duty is applicable.

Mind you, someone's bound to be stocking Crucial in Australia. A search of Australian online PC stores should come up with something. Then you wouldn't have to bother finding out about import duty.

HTH