hi im looking to speed my laptop back up so im looking at moving programmes that i dont use much to a hard drive , memory map for example. and then doing (something ??) to put it back to a clean new state and hopefully will start up and run faster again. and i’ll still have the programmes i want but dont use much

thanks in advance. btw im rubbish at this so go easy 😉

Assuming you mean Windows, you can’t just “move programs”. You need to re-install them after you’ve re-installed Windows. Just get your pile of install disks together and go through hem one by one. If it’s a program you’ve downloaded from somewhere, chances are the file you downloaded is in your “Downloads” folder. In that case, you’ll need to make a copy of it before you wipe your HDD.

See if your laptop can take a 2nd hard drive in the case – some can. I just added a big 2nd hard drive to Mrs TT’s laptop, moved all the photos / music etc to that drive and uninstalled all the triv programmes and moved them to the 2nd hard drive – then used disk tidy functions. Went a lot quicker.

Also – ensure you have the max RAM possible in it – that will speed things up more.

if i understand right do things such as music, books etc also slow it down .if so i could put all my books onto the hard drive ive about 20,000 books on it god knows how many pictures too.

thanks i’ll get cracking

What tends to slow a laptop down is all the stuff Microsoft keeps adding to the updates it sends out. I don’t think there’s much you can do about it apart from adding memory or starting a class action suit (which might cost more and take longer).

No. Data that isn’t accessed doesn’t really get in the way. It’s possible to re-organise the information on your disk to keep all the frequently-accessed stuff together though (it saves the wee disk head zapping back and forth so much). Ideally, you’d want to partition your disk into a “drive” for the operating system and programs and another “drive” for all of your data (books music, pictures etc). Thing is, this can be difficult to do without a clean install of Windows (something you might find useful anyway).

Another option is to pre-allocate a swap file. That’s a highly-used area and keeping it contiguous will improve performance.

But before you do anything, get an external Hard Drive and back up everything you have!!!

i probably need a clean install but i dont know where all my memory map stuff is probably in the skip after a house move so dont really want to lose that but i’ll see what else i have.

if i backed up everything to the harddrive then did a clean install would i be able to pick things from the back up drive or would it be a case it just putting everything backed up back on and im back to sqare one

cheers

Whatever data you want to put back can be simply moved back across (that would include your memory map “map” files). Programs need to be re-installed. Part of the installation process is making various updates to Operating System files. Unless you know exactly what all of these are, it’s a losers game.

quick one for you ive just found my downloads file and its got for instance a few of firefox can i delete all apart from the last ones or do you need them all

also ive stuck my memory map installation download on the hard drive and clicked to see what happened and it started to install so it may work but it wanted to install to my c drive rather than to the hard drive but im sure i can alter that unless it needs to be on the c for some reason

thanks anyway i’ll have a fiddle then do a back up to hard drive and if it all goes pete tong i can just go back to last back up. (i think) 😉

Have you got as much RAM as possible? That will make a huge difference for the cost.

i wouldnt have a clue too tall , it is what it is 😉

edit.. just found info it says 3.0gb ram

http://www.crucial.com/uk/

Go there. Click on ‘System canner’. Click on ‘Scan my Computer’. Follow directions. Tell us what it tells you.

What it has and what it can take might be different numbers. ‘3’ means little.

cheers fella it says i have 3gb in 2 x slots at 2gb and 1 gb and i can buy and fit 2 x 2gb to put it up to 4gb. i may have a look into that after christmas but not sure how much it would inmprove matters

annoyingly it was fast when new its just gradually got slower and slower, its really the turning on and off thats the problem tbh

What version of Windows are you running? It may be that any more than 3GB will be inaccessible.

Tbh if windows is clogged up with crap ( and windows clogs its self up over time) then there isnt enough ram in the world to make it faster

The solution is a reinstall – i realise you dont want this but it is the solution

Going from 3Gb to 4Gb isn’t going to make a huge deal of difference.

Happy to take a look remotely after Christmas if you like.

ok cheers fellas im going to have a look at cleaning up some bits and i may take you up on that cougar as im sure there is loads of bits and bobs hanging round from installing and uninstalling . im on vista btw cheers fellas

I should caveat that last comment.

Going from 3Gb to 4Gb isn’t going to make a huge deal of difference, assuming a 32-bit OS, which it probably is at that vintage and spec.

Email in profile if you want me to have a mooch, but it’ll be after Boxing Day before I’m free.

yeah its 32 bit os. cheers fella i’ll drop you a line next week sometime thanks mick