Laptop running slooooow, Should I wipe my hardrive? - Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community

sadatx · 05-07-2005, 07:33 PM

On my old laptop, windows got so gunked up with crap that it was crawling, so I erased my hardrive and reinstalled windows. While this was a pain in the ass (backing up everything and all) it ran so much better after I did it.

Well, I'm having the same problems with my current laptop and defragging helps only slightly.

To make matters worse, I've installed Adobe Premier editing software on my laptop for school and while it does run smoothly sometimes, there are times when it's just impossible to use because windows is running so slow.

So should I erase my harddrive or is there an easier solution? My other problem is that my laptop was shipped with Windows preinstalled, so I don't have a windows disk to reinstall the program if I wipe my drive.

Here's my system info: IBM Laptop w/ a 1.59 GHz Pentium M and 512 mb of RAM running Windows XP

soccerchamp76 · 05-07-2005, 07:45 PM

There are many options that you can do to "optimize" your computer.
If you are certain that the speed loss is not due to spyware/viruses/malware, here are some options I would do.
Disk Cleanup: Right click on the C:\ icon, and click properties. Then do go disk cleanup and remove a lot of unnecessary files, and old system restore files (which can accumulate up to a couple GIGS of space).
Uninstall old programs that you no longer use.
Cleanup your registry: Find a program, such as RegistryMechanic, that can repair your registry from missing files, incomplete files, etc that come with using a com,puter for a while.
Defrag your hard drive again after doing these.

05-07-2005, 07:33 PM	#1 (permalink)
sadatx Psycho	Laptop running slooooow, Should I wipe my hardrive? On my old laptop, windows got so gunked up with crap that it was crawling, so I erased my hardrive and reinstalled windows. While this was a pain in the ass (backing up everything and all) it ran so much better after I did it. Well, I'm having the same problems with my current laptop and defragging helps only slightly. To make matters worse, I've installed Adobe Premier editing software on my laptop for school and while it does run smoothly sometimes, there are times when it's just impossible to use because windows is running so slow. So should I erase my harddrive or is there an easier solution? My other problem is that my laptop was shipped with Windows preinstalled, so I don't have a windows disk to reinstall the program if I wipe my drive. Here's my system info: IBM Laptop w/ a 1.59 GHz Pentium M and 512 mb of RAM running Windows XP

05-07-2005, 07:45 PM	#2 (permalink)
soccerchamp76 Go Cardinals Location: St. Louis/Cincinnati	There are many options that you can do to "optimize" your computer. If you are certain that the speed loss is not due to spyware/viruses/malware, here are some options I would do. Disk Cleanup: Right click on the C:\ icon, and click properties. Then do go disk cleanup and remove a lot of unnecessary files, and old system restore files (which can accumulate up to a couple GIGS of space). Uninstall old programs that you no longer use. Cleanup your registry: Find a program, such as RegistryMechanic, that can repair your registry from missing files, incomplete files, etc that come with using a com,puter for a while. Defrag your hard drive again after doing these. __________________ Brian Griffin: Ah, if my memory serves me, this is the physics department. Chris Griffin: That would explain all the gravity.