Fear laptop may crash (overloaded)

shawnee · 26-04-2009 9:16am #1

Hi , I have a sony vaio pentium 4 . It is around 6 years old and has served me very well. I use it for internet and my photography and personal stuff. Recently it has gone slow and on one or two occasions has shut down . I fear that I may lose all my stuff if it crashes. Can anyone tell me what I need to do to ensure I don't lose my stuff. Also how to I go about clearing out some of the rubbish. Thanks.

MunsterCycling · 26-04-2009 9:20am

Do you have a DVD or CD burner on the machine? If not then do you own an external hard drive?

Both of these can be used to backup your files, only clean out the laptop afterwards.

MC

ITDept · 26-04-2009 9:21am

start - my computer - right click on C drive - properties - disk cleanup - tick all boxes - let it run

then do the same again but go to disk cleanup - more options - delete all but most recent restore point

then go back to the same area but go to tools - disk defragmenter and run that

as for backing up data, are you able to burn CDs or similar?

davej · 26-04-2009 9:23am

After 6 years you might want to try de-fragmenting your hard drive.

Control panel->administrative tools->computer management->storage->Disk Defragmenter.
Just start it running and leave it alone until it's finished.

Also you should buy an external hard drive and copy all of your photos and other important files onto it. Large external hard drives are quite cheap these days.

You could also uninstall any old applications or games you no longer use. Control Panel->add remove programs

davej

docmol · 26-04-2009 9:30am

all of above, but when you have done all that consider getting a bit of extra ram for the laptop. 6 years ago ram was very expensive, but with any luck, the ram for your laptop might be very cheap these days. I have put 2 gb ram into older and slower laptops for €25, bringing them up from 256mb, and making them so much faster it's just silly.

shawnee · 26-04-2009 10:54am

Thanks a bunch all. I have a cd burner on the machine, but it seems to be a bit faulty to will probably consider the external hard drive. This has been doing my head in for a while, thanks for explaining in layman's language.;)

Dartz · 26-04-2009 12:18pm

Try clearing out your heatsink. If it's 'going slow' and shutting itself down, she might be overheating. If your heatsink/fan is clogged with dust, then it won't cool properly. Pentium 4's weren't exactly known for being thermally efficient anyway. IIRC, you could fry an egg on them.

Fear laptop may crash (overloaded)

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