Upgrade

enfield

Ok my daughter usually 'advises' me but I need an other opinion.
I have a dell computer about four years old. The hard drive is 80 gigs. I filled up with so much stuff I had only about 12 gigs let and it slowed down considerably. So I deleter lots of stuff and that left me with 35 gigs of free space. It didn,t make much difference to the computer speed. Herself says that the computer is shagged and formatting the hard drive will not make a difference as it is full of stuff even though I deleted a heck of a lotta stuff. She says it will slow down until it just stops so she wants be to buy a new computer. So, here is my proposal, keeping costs to a minimum, could I get, maybe a new 500gig internal hard drive, put that in and would the computer work as god as before or even better or would all the other programs etc be as shagged as they seem to be now?
Please have patience with this old codger, its all rocket science to me.
Kind regards.
Tom.

Monotype

If you installed windows clean on the new drive, it should work as before. It might be still slow getting your files from your old drive if they are fragmented (single file's parts spread across the drive).

If you have 35GB free out of 80GB, you could try defragmenting.
My computer -> Right-click on drive -> Properties -> Tools -> Defragment Now. Will probably take a few hours. Do it a few times.

That will sort your files but you might just have too many junk programs and it really needs a clean install.

IrishMetalhead

monotype's suggestion is the only suggestion that might work but your daughter may be right unfortunatly if monotypes suggestion dosn't work then i wouldn't think it's the hdd it could be the processor on it's last legs and unfortunatly upgrading a dell computer is a complete dead end so you should just go with what monotype said and hopefully that works if not then maybe it's time to consider a new computer (heaper if you get one custom built cheaper and better quality rather then going to Dell again so keep that in mind)

enfield

Thanks for all the advice guys, its very much appreciated.
Kind regards.
Tom.

Jonny7

enfield wrote: »

Ok my daughter usually 'advises' me but I need an other opinion.
I have a dell computer about four years old. The hard drive is 80 gigs. I filled up with so much stuff I had only about 12 gigs let and it slowed down considerably. So I deleter lots of stuff and that left me with 35 gigs of free space. It didn,t make much difference to the computer speed. Herself says that the computer is shagged and formatting the hard drive will not make a difference as it is full of stuff even though I deleted a heck of a lotta stuff. She says it will slow down until it just stops so she wants be to buy a new computer. So, here is my proposal, keeping costs to a minimum, could I get, maybe a new 500gig internal hard drive, put that in and would the computer work as god as before or even better or would all the other programs etc be as shagged as they seem to be now?
Please have patience with this old codger, its all rocket science to me.
Kind regards.
Tom.

Only 4 years? I have a 10 year old machine still running in the house

Heres a great program (windows advanced systemcare)
http://download.cnet.com/1770-20_4-0.html?query=systemcare&platformSelect=Windows&tag=srch&searchtype=downloads&filterName=platform%3DWindows&filter=platform%3DWindows

and its free

Gets rid of a lot of crap - seen quite a few older pc's brought back to life just by cleaning up the registry, defragging, getting the spyware off, etc, etc.

enfield

Thank you Jonny, I will download that and see what happens.
Kind regards.
Tom.

enfield

Just to let you know I downloaded that program and there is a marked improvement in computer speed. I had adaware and ccleaner the usual defrag that comes with the 'puter and that this program would be the same as them all put together but in fairness, it seems to do the business. It has given my desktop a new life.
Thaks for all the advice and help.
Kind regards.
Tom.

bette

enfield wrote: »

Just to let you know I downloaded that program and there is a marked improvement in computer speed. I had adaware and ccleaner the usual defrag that comes with the 'puter and that this program would be the same as them all put together but in fairness, it seems to do the business. It has given my desktop a new life.
Thaks for all the advice and help.
Kind regards.
Tom.

http://www.komplett.ie/Komplett/catalog/ZKB_01COM/11_HDD/default.aspx
http://www.komplett.ie/Komplett/catalog/ZKB_01COM/11_HDD/06_INTHD25/default.aspx

You should consider a bigger hard disk as above. You don't specify if your computer is a laptop or desktop. If it's a desktop/tower you can install a second disk no problem. You should also think of a second disk for backing up your stuff.