My home computer is really slow. A friend asked me if I had defraged it lately.?

Question

Will running the disc defragmantation sequence help the speed of my computer? Any other suggestions?

Answer 1

A clean computer is key to a faster computer. Run the 3 scans below.

Run a virus scan weekly.

Update and run your Anti-Virus program. Don't have one? You can run a free online scan from CA.
http://www3.ca.com/securityadvisor/virus...



Run Spybot and Adaware weekly.


Download, update and run Spybot---http://www.safer-networking.org/... . Don't forget to use the Immunize feature.

Download, update and run Adaware---http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaw...



Now to prevent spyware from being installed in the first place....




Download SpywareBlaster---http://majorgeeks.com/download2859.html

SpywareBlaster doesn't scan and clean for spyware - it prevents it from ever being installed.

It's main features include:
- Prevent the installation of ActiveX-based spyware, adware, browser hijackers, dialers, and other potentially unwanted pests.
- Block spyware/tracking cookies in Internet Explorer and Mozilla/Firefox.
- Restrict the actions of potentially dangerous sites in Internet Explorer.






Now lets clean up your registry.


Run RegScrubXP weekly. Run Cleanup every time you log off.


Download RegScrubXP--http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?d...

Safely cleans junk out of the Windows 2000/XP system registry. All changes made to the registry are fully restorable to it's original condition. You can make an exclusion list of registry entries that RegScrubXP will not display as problems. You can sift through a list of file extensions, company names, run upon startup programs, Internet Explorer history, and uninstall programs to delete what you think is junk.

Download CleanUp---http://www.stevengould.org/software/clea...

Free disk space, make your computer run better/faster and protect your privacy - all in one easy solution. All for free!





Now lets clean up your disk.



Run a Disk Cleanup 2 times a month. Run Disk Defrag. monthly.


Do a Disk Cleanup and Disk Defrag. You can find both of them by following the path below.
Start>all programs>accessories>system tools>Disk Cleanup. Let it do its thing. You can check every box that has something to delete.
Now follow the same path and do a Disk Defrag. Again just let it do its thing.




Now lets tweak your connection.


If your speed is good I would not mess with it by trying to tweak it. If you do tweak once it is done you should not have to do it every again.


There are many programs out there to do this. I will give you 2 of them.
The first one is TCP Optimizer.

Description: The TCP Optimizer is a free, easy Windows program that provides an intuitive interface for tuning and optimizing your Internet connection. There is no installation required, just download and run.

http://www.speedguide.net/downloads.php....

You can get support for the best way to set it up right from their forum http://forums.speedguide.net/

The second one is Cablenut.

Windows XP tested and approved

CableNut is a tool for optimizing your Internet Connection. We have provided a way to tweak any option you may want to in the adjuster. You can load "CableNut Custom Setting" files that are included with the program to tweak your Internet connection.

http://www.cablenut.com/

Again support is available right from their forum.http://www.broadbandnuts.com/index.php?p...




All programs are FREE!




After applying the suggestions above you will have a clean and faster computer. Enjoy.

Answer 2

Defragmenting does not usually have a dramatic change on the speed of the computer, you'll notice a bit of speed only on booting and when running some programs (but again this is barley noticeable). If the computer is a new or relatively new one, a major speed killer is a program named svchost (you can find it on the task manager) it usually runs when the computer is checking for updates, you'll find that it utilizes a lot of cpu power
Solution is to make sure automatic updates are scheduled to run only when you want, lets say when your not working on the pc(the usual default is every day)
Also make sure you clear temporary files in their respective folders (internet, setup files, outlook,,, etc..)
And, check the task or icon tray (lower right corner of the screen) lots of icons means your running a lot of programs in the background, this takes from the system memory. See what you don’t need and remove from the task tray
Finally, check your hard disk utilization, if you have low free space it affects your virtual memory and this will affect speed directly.

Answer 3

It should. Everytime you access data on your hard drive, you split the data bits and in time they can become quite scattered. This slows down the processing time because it takes longer to access the bits as they become more scattered across your drive. Defragging will collect up the bits and reorganize them into a collected place on the drive. You should defrag every 4-6 months, depending upon how much you use your computer.

Answer 4

One thing that should help is to give it a check over with the online optimisation scan @ http://www.pcpitstop.com/pcpitstop/

Defragmenting should also help, but will take AGES if you haven't done it for a while, as it basically organises the fragments of files scattered over your hard disk, as files are broken down into frgments of a few kilobytes......... and the more scattered they become, the harder it is for the part of the hard drive that reads the disk to find them. And the worse it gets, the more it's likely to wear the drive out prematurely.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defragmentation

Also use Anti-Virus + Anti-Spyware software to search for and zap any crap on your computer that shouldn't be there. If you ain't got any (and you should), then I recommend AVIRA Anti-VIR PersonalEdition Classic from http://www.free-av.com + SPYBOT: SEARCH & DESTROY from http://www.safer-networking.org

Or as a paid for solution (available on free 14-day trial), ZONEALARM INTERNET SECURITY SUITE is very good (providing your PC uses Windows XP, with Win 95/98/ME no longer supported) and also includes a tool to clean your PC of junk (e.g. cookies, history logs, temporary internet files) - http://www.zonelabs.com

Another thing I've found good for speeding up computers is "TUNE-UP UTILITIES 2007" which comes on 30-day trial before you have to pay for it. See http://www.tune-up.com

Answer 5

It might, but most likely only if you have added or deleted files/programs since the last time you defragmented your hard drive. Try looking at the task manager and seeing if you have an unnecessary programs running.

Answer 6

THIS IS AN EXCELLENT PROGRAM ---FREE----
IT WORKS REALLY WELL

I HAVE DELETED 831,189 FILES SO FAR =20.6GB

RUN IT SEVERAL TIMES A DAY IF YOU LIKE

CleanUp!

Clicking on this button starts CleanUp! In about a minute or so you will have a nice, clean machine.
The amount of time its takes for CleanUp! to run depends on how much work it has to do. This is determined by a number of factors including when you last ran CleanUp!, when you last emptied your Internet Explorer and/or Netscape Navigator cache, how much you have surfed the web since the last CleanUp!, and so on.
Detailed information about what CleanUp! is doing is output in the log window.

Answer 7

Disk defragmenter is a computer program designed to increase access speed and sometimes increase the amount of usable space by rearranging files stored on a disk. It will speed up the access to files and is a good idea to run frequently.

Use Ccleaner first available below to clean up the harddrive.

Answer 8

It may, but it wouldn't hurt if it hasn't been done in a while.

Defrag is usually the first step in resolving a slow computer.

Answer 9

I have mine set up to defrag once a week for me and after that's done it runs much faster. also I put a spyware sweeper on my computer as even though you put an antivirus on your computer it won't take care of spyware. I got Spy Sweeper from bestbuy and it's not that much. haven't had any problems since I installed it.

Answer 10

it is a good idea to run defrag, but be sure to shut off any anti virus, especially the one in bios if you have it, and also no screen saver running, good idea to have as little running in back ground, those icons near the clock in taskbar. Also disk cleanup is a good idea.