computer help please

**FROSTY:Me** · 7th June 2005, 23:17

My computer is soposed to be the ducks nuts with truckloads of memory and all that good stuff. Im not into gaming or vid downloads yet things seem to be taking ages to happen.
I've got a jetstream unit which I just can't gwet to run
Im running Win98 version 2
Sparky--Bless his little cotton socks came over and got things running again for me but still not properly.
If possible could some computer tech come over and do what needs to be done to get the ol gal humming again.

**John** · 7th June 2005, 23:19

best bet is just to get one of the locals to come around - ask tristanK he might be willing to travel - I would for you but abit out of reach eh?

I will link him to this post when he comes back online, but there are plenty of other willing geeks around so it should be ok for someone to pop round n sort you out..

**zadok** · 7th June 2005, 23:30

I presume you are using virus scanning software.
If not, it is a must!
I use the free AVG from Grisoft: http://free.grisoft.com/doc/2/lng/us/tpl/v5
and the free SpybotSD: http://www.download.com/Spybot-Searc...-10122137.html
I don't seem to get any problems.
You could also go to 'performance & maintenance' in the control panel to do a defrag if it hasn't been done for a while..
Hope this helps.

**SpankMe** · 7th June 2005, 23:34

Nothing like a fresh re-install of the OS with all the updates from windows update to get everything running right. For a while anyway.

Also running Ad-Aware, Spybot & MS Spyware helps.

**Waylander** · 7th June 2005, 23:44

Originally Posted by zadok

You could also go to 'performance & maintenance' in the control panel to do a defrag if it hasn't been done for a while..
Hope this helps.

Which option in there do I choose to do the defrag?

I see:

**zadok** · 7th June 2005, 23:52

Originally Posted by Waylander

Which option in there do I choose to do the defrag?

I see:

'Rearrange items....'

**Waylander** · 8th June 2005, 00:25

Originally Posted by zadok

'Rearrange items....'

Ok I did that and ran the analylisis. It shows that a bunch of my downloads are fragments. Will defraging my drive delete the actuall files or are these just left overs from when I downloaded them?

**John** · 8th June 2005, 00:30

Originally Posted by Waylander

Ok I did that and ran the analylisis. It shows that a bunch of my downloads are fragments. Will defraging my drive delete the actuall files or are these just left overs from when I downloaded them?

'Re-arrange files to make programs run faster'

IIRC

**Waylander** · 8th June 2005, 00:33

Originally Posted by John

'Re-arrange files to make programs run faster'

IIRC

Ok but if I lose any of my downloaded files I'm gonna come knocking on your door.

And what does IIRC mean?

Edit) Haha Can't do it anyway. Need to have 15% free space I only have 1% right now.

**HDTboy** · 8th June 2005, 00:35

Defragmenting, shifts all the fragmented files into as small an area as possible, so that the hard drives head(s) don't spend as much time searching for shite. Well that's my basic understanding/guess

And the best part is that you won't lose your porn waylander

**John** · 8th June 2005, 00:36

Originally Posted by Waylander

Ok but if I lose any of my downloaded files I'm gonna come knocking on your door.

And what does IIRC mean?

Just click defragment you wont loose anything.

IIRC = If I remeber correctly

**John** · 8th June 2005, 00:39

Originally Posted by HDTboy

Defragmenting, shifts all the fragmented files into as small an area as possible, so that the hard drives head(s) don't spend as much time searching for shite. Well that's my basic understanding/guess

And the best part is that you won't lose your porn waylander

Every cluster has a reference in the FAT, that allows programs to be stored in bits in different areas - this means that when a part of the software is opened then the part that is being excuted can be paged to ram, and normally by the time its paged back to the HDD the orginal allocation area has being used so its put elsewhere, hence fragmentation, defragmenting just moves the files back together in a correct order, reducing seak time.

**HDTboy** · 8th June 2005, 00:42

It's a good thing I just fix cars then aye?

**Ixion** · 8th June 2005, 00:43

Originally Posted by Waylander

Ok but if I lose any of my downloaded files I'm gonna come knocking on your door.

And what does IIRC mean?

Edit) Haha Can't do it anyway. Need to have 15% free space I only have 1% right now.

If you have only 1% free space system performance will be BADLY munted. You need to clear out some trash files (have you emptied your trash can ? ) to get at least 20% free space.

Then run a FULL defrag, because by now your file system is going to be shatted six ways to midnight. Credit to it that the beast runs at all.

A defrag definately won't lose anything, unless your disk is already damaged (in which case it's already lost, just you don't realise it ).