Full hard drive and slow PC?

Question

My laptop, a dell d800 with 1gb of ram and 60gig hard drive on xp pro is acting kind of weird. It's the hard drive actually. When I check out how much space is left it says that there's 6gig free. I don't understand what's talking up all of the space. My itunes has 14.72gb of music on it so it can't be that. I've deleted all videos and although I've got lots of word and pdf files there's no way they're taking up almost 40gb of space. I don't want to reformat if at all possible because I've heard the windows backup tool is pretty poor and I risk losing my data. Even if I do back it up I don't know how to get my library back onto my laptop from an external hard drive without running into some sort of glitch. I defrag often, use crap cleaner, and all that stuff but no luck. Suggestions???

Answer 1

Go to http://www.filehippo.com and download a file called DupeKiller. Instal and run it, what it does is get rid of all duplicate files on your drive. I had a similar problem, and when I ran that it sahowed me that I actualy had my music twice, in 2 different folders (one inside the other). It's worth a shot cos the program is free.

Answer 2

If your virus/spyware free, there are a couple things you can do get your computer working faster. If you using your computer for normal stuff and not gaming. You don't always need more RAM you just need to perform a few maintenance task.

First, if you haven't cleaned your registry in a while. This is necessary. Your registry holds all the information regarding updates, installs, un-installs etc. Each one of those events produces a key. That key needs your PC's resources and free space. So, if you clean your registry, you make more resources available for speed. Do a registry scan if you got more than 20 errors you should clean it.
http://www.delete-computer-history.com/what-is-the-best-registry-cleaner.html

2. Clear your Windows cache files, this is your temporary file. It can grow up to a large volume and stop your computer from using RAM properly. In a sense slow it down by preventing it from using free space.Here is how:

1. Quit Internet Explorer, Firefox, or any other web browser
2. Click Start, click "Control Panel", and then double-click "Internet Options".
3. On the General tab, click "Delete Files" under Temporary Internet Files.
4. In the Delete Files dialog box, click to select the "Delete all offline content" check box , and then click OK.
5. Click OK.

3. Manage your startups. Your excess CPU usage is due to too many programs running in the background. You can cut these to barebones by alter your msconfig. Here is how:

1. Open your Start menu.
2. Click Run
3. In the command screen type "msconfig.exe"
4. In the "system configuration utility",click either "service" or "startup" tab
5. Uncheck all programs that your are no longer using.
6. Click "OK"

Other great tip is increasing your virtual memory to simulate more RAM. This will give you a bit more resources for multiple program use or CPU heavy programs.
Hope this link helps. Shows you how to do everything step by step. You should get a least 60-120% more resources and speed
if you follow the tips.

Answer 3

I am a developer at Microsoft so I know a thing or two about computers. The best PC cleaner and antivirus program is PC Health Boost, it's very light and it's the only antivirus/cleaner with a 99.99% detection rate.

It's also a PC booster so your computer will be running faster than nomal. Download it here for free: http://www.pcboostsoftware.com

Answer 4

Older restore points, recycle bin take up space, try clearing that and then doing a defrag. If the drive is running out of free space it might be an ordeal to defrag. In any case backup your files before trying anything.

Answer 5

Yeah, you probably have duplicated files.

For instance, my camera software uploads the pics to the computer into a file.

Then Picassa copies the pics into another file.

Browse the folders in My Computer one at a time...just scroll over each folder to see it's file size.

Another thing is do you have any programs you don't use? Go to Add/Remove programs and scroll through the list. You can probably delete some big programs.

ADDITION:

You should back up your data anyways, just in case something happens (hard drive failure, whatever).

If you have data that you love, get it on CD or external drive, or something!!

Answer 6

Fastest way to get back some space is to turn off your 'System Restore'

It uses, by default, up to 10% of your hard drive.

If your system is running ok, turning it off will delete all the backups and free up some space. When you get your drive cleaned up, turn the System Restore back on.

Also use Add/Remove Programs to get rid of programs you don't use.

Also open your 'C' drive and click on Windows and look at folders starting with $NtUninstall - These are folders with uninstall information on programs. If you have removed programs you don't need with the add/remove, you can get rid of this bunch of folders and free up space.

Also do a search on *.tmp and get rid of temporary files.

Also do a search on *.jpg / *.gif / *.tff files and get rid of photos you don't need.

Your computer can't work effectively without hard drive space for a swap file to access while using programs.

Sarge

Answer 7

You need space to swap info. The computer should be never full with info. get about 5%-10% of free space. This should do it.

Answer 8

1st run a disk clean up and check all the boxes , then run a diskcheck with both options checked after ts done defrag your hard drive and i bet you will regain your lost space

Answer 9

I’d recommend you to scan your pc for viruses using AVAST which is free and very good.

Answer 10

Quick and easy way is to burn your laptop and buy a new one. it worked for me but its expensive