Hey computer geeks...

[SVTMuscle*]

Now that my harddrive is beginning to fill up a bit more, it seems my laptop is starting to slow down. Yall know any other ways to keep your PC running at top notch?
This is what I got so far;

* Defrag
* Disk Clean Up
* Adaware

....anyone got any better ideas?
thanks

[FranKieC]

Now that my harddrive is beginning to fill up a bit more, it seems my laptop is starting to slow down. Yall know any other ways to keep your PC running at top notch?
This is what I got so far;

* Defrag
* Disk Clean Up
* Adaware

....anyone got any better ideas?
thanks

Get an external hard drive and copy your files to that via Universal Serial Bus (USB)

[SVTMuscle*]

Well my hardrive is 25gb full out of 80gb for its not like its completly full.

how much is an external hardrive?

[Smak]

spybot is good too. It's free.

[FranKieC]

Well my hardrive is 25gb full out of 80gb for its not like its completly full.

how much is an external hardrive?

Depends on how many gigs you want. You can search online or just go to Bestbuy. I am the same way. I hate when my primary HD gets cluttered so I use an external with all files backed-up.

[Carlos_E]

Clean out temp files.

c:\windows\temp

and also

c:\documents & settings\user profile\local\temp

You have to have view hidden files turned on to view the local directory

[Bigen12]

Clean out temp files.

c:\windows\temp

and also

c:\documents & settings\user profile\local\temp

You have to have view hidden files turned on to view the local directory

Yep,

Also from Explorer, go to tools, Internet Options, Look at Temporary Internet files, click Settings and adjust the amount of memory is dedicated to cookies.

Also Look at History, there you can adjust how long history of your internet actions are kept.

[bazerk]

All of the above were my original thoughts, you also might want to get rid of the porn. LOL.

[FranKieC]

Yep,

Also from Explorer, go to tools, Internet Options, Look at Temporary Internet files, click Settings and adjust the amount of memory is dedicated to cookies.

Also Look at History, there you can adjust how long history of your internet actions are kept.

The cookies and footsteps stored in the Temp internet Files really don't utilize much Disk Space. If you are concerned about those use the steps above. If you are using Firefox go to Tools/Clear Private Data.

If you are really concerned I would just spend the moneyand get an external HD.

[Bigen12]

The cookies and footsteps stored in the Temp internet Files really don't utilize much Disk Space.

You're right they don't but there can be several thousand cookies.

But you are right the External HD is the way to go.

[Jantzen4k]

defrag is best or get USB jump drive

[FranKieC]

You're right they don't but there can be several thousand cookies.

But you are right the External HD is the way to go.

Thanks

I usually clear temp folders after every internet session.

[eGGz]

If the registry has multiple errors that will slow things down quite a bit too

A good registry cleaner will help.

Here’s one:

http://www.macecraft.com/regsupreme/

Or do a search, there are many to choose from.

[jamminJohn]

I think you gave the best answers to your own question. Running Disk Cleanup and Defrag should help a lot with performance, if you haven't done it in a while. Also, any type of anti-spyware program will help limit potentially harmful cookies. Since your hard drive is currently less than 30% full, I don't really think that an external drive would give you much benefit in performance. The other thing that you really should check is how many applications, or processes, you have running. If you have a lot of things running in the background this can cause major performance issues. You may want to shut down anything that you don't really need. Often, when you install an application, the default setting will be to start the application when you boot your computer. This can cause a lot of applications to run in the background that you are not even using. You can go into Windows Task Manager and manually shut these down or you can run MSCONFIG and in your System Configuration Utility under the Startup tab, you can deselect any applications that you don't want running when you load Windows. Then reboot your computer and it should run a little smoother. Also, of course, the more applications you run, the more memory you need, so adding more RAM may help with performance also.

[Bigen12]

If after running any spyware programs you can find, you're still plague by spyware, your best bet is to back up any files you need, and reformat your hard drive, and reload your software, that's the best way to make sure you got them all.

[StoneGRMI]

I think you gave the best answers to your own question. Running Disk Cleanup and Defrag should help a lot with performance, if you haven't done it in a while. Also, any type of anti-spyware program will help limit potentially harmful cookies. Since your hard drive is currently less than 30% full, I don't really think that an external drive would give you much benefit in performance. The other thing that you really should check is how many applications, or processes, you have running. If you have a lot of things running in the background this can cause major performance issues. You may want to shut down anything that you don't really need. Often, when you install an application, the default setting will be to start the application when you boot your computer. This can cause a lot of applications to run in the background that you are not even using. You can go into Windows Task Manager and manually shut these down or you can run MSCONFIG and in your System Configuration Utility under the Startup tab, you can deselect any applications that you don't want running when you load Windows. Then reboot your computer and it should run a little smoother. Also, of course, the more applications you run, the more memory you need, so adding more RAM may help with performance also.

exactly...your hard drive space has almost nothing to do with its performance right now with it not even being 50% full.