Windows 7 laptop clogged up and slow

The Black Oil

Have a Windows 7 Dell laptop here, it's about 5 years old. I was working on it earlier to clean up disk space and junk. Only got so far with that as space on C is still quite low. It was in the red, saying about 600 MB free, then after a few restarts, only about 90MB free. Now after Disk Cleanup and a few restarts it says about 7GB free. I'm going to run a few scans like CCleaner, etc.

A family member gave it to me with reports that it was clogged up and slow. The partition, D, is fine. Plenty of space. This is how it was set up originally. Is it worth merging D with the OS drive, C?

I've not connected it to the 'net to run Windows Update yet.

I'll run TreeSize to try and see what's taking up space.

yuloni

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The Black Oil

That seemed to be the solution, thanks. About 230 GB available now on C.

yuloni

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johnnybmac

I know the free space issue has been sorted by removing a partition, and this is usually the first thing we'll look for, but...

I always found that partitioning was particularly handy for the likes of XP and older OS versions when we had to do pretty regular re-installs, it meant user data could be kept on a separate partition in the event of OS corruption etc. and the need for a re-install.

Nowadays, This data is sometimes reserved in the windows.old folder (depending on the re-install method used)

I still like to use the "D" partition to hold the data in user folder/s.

This way, if windows becomes corrupted, the data is still in place on the drive and I can just re-install windows onto the C: drive, create new user profiles, and point them to those folders again (Personal preference I guess)... (Oldschool I guess )

Another quick way to free up some space quickly on an almost full C: drive is to right-click on the recycle bin and select properties and re-size the space reserved for it (usually 10% of the drive)

The Black Oil

Thanks both. Firefox and VLC were on D, reinstalled those. I'll make a mental note on Recycle Bin point. Sometimes silly things are default, like the amount of space IE assigns for - I forget what exactly - history, maybe to 250MB.

I ran Disk Cleanup, CCleaner, JRT and ADW just in case something was lurking. No harm to spring clean now and then as family machines (ime) gets cluttered up. The Ask toolbar or some such was in there. I've added Unchecky to remove the default option of toolbars automatically installing.

Mightn't have done a perfect job. I can see the value in having some sort of partition, but it's good enough for a family member.

riclad

ON Laptops I get theres usually 3 windows partition,
1 small, maybe 100- 200meg.1 hidden,
maybe 8gig,
then the main partition for windows 7,or vista .

if you delete the files from the 2 smaller partitions it has no effect,

Until you need to do a system restore ,reinstall of windows os/

SAY i get a bad virus or windows is corrupted on my laptop ,
i can back up files,user documents, ,press a few buttons ,
and reinstall windows in 15minutes .
even use a linux cd to recover data to an external drive .

eg its better to leave partitions on a windows pc,;laptop as is
as the space you get back is quite small.

The hidden partition 7-8 gig contains the main windows os ,reinstall os,driver files .
WHEN the average drive is now 250 gig ,
its not worth deleting either of the 2 extra partitions.

AT some point its likely you,ll need to do a full os reinstall of windows and you probably wont have a windows 7, 8 dvd to do this with.,

You can reduce the windows swap file,and
delete all temp files ,old zip files, etc using ccleaner .

YOU can also delete the files inside the temporary history browser folder.

When you buy a new pc/laptop theres various files on it,partitions,
they are all there for a reason.
they are not just random files ,put there as a joke,
they will all be used in the event of system os restore, reinstall of the os.

You may have too many random old programs installed ,
or demo programs ,eg which are no longer used by anyone, but take up alot of drive space.

yuloni

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riclad

Ok,
on a hp pc,windows 7 ,i had.
theres a recovery partition,7gig,
Also theres a 100meg partition ,
if you delete that , the recover os process will not work .
Windows 7 is my latest os,
so i have no info re efi partitions.

johnnybmac

yuloni wrote: »

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Too true, its a pity the manufacturers couldn't point the Users folder to the empty/extra drive as a place to store data...

The Black Oil

Currently, there's OS, C. Health Recovery partition, 9.77GB and Healthy OEM Partition, 100MB. That sound OK?

One of the laptop's hinges feels a bit loose.

beauf

Nothing breathes life into an old laptop like a SSD. its not a dead money either. You can move an SSD to a new system. It will work even better in that.

A machine that old really needs a re-install of Windows. IF you have the media or parition to re-install it.

That said if you un-install all the apps and services you can. Then clean it like you say with Ccleaner etc. defrag with defraggler, Then install the latest version of the apps you need, making sure not to load any services, or statup apps. It will improve it no end. You might even be able to stick more RAM in it cheaply.

bonzodog2

Also get a Class 10 SD card and use that with ReadyBoost if your not getting a SSD, faster for virtual memory paging

beauf

Good idea especially if the machine can't take any more RAM.

riclad

Unless you have 2 sata ports in the pc , laptop ,
i think its a bad idea to buy a ssd card .
they are much more expensive and smaller than the average sata drive.
ie 200gig.
The main benefit of ssd drives is they are very fast as regards booting up
or loading large files ,eg hd ,4k video files .
Some people put windows on a ssd for fast boot up, using readyboost mode,
put data ,music etc on drive 2, ,500- 1000gig standard non ssd Sata

A Standard sata drive is much cheaper than a 250 gig ssd drive.
i have a standard sata 120 gig drive,
loads up ubuntu os in about 1 minute .
runs faster than windows 7, no antivirus needed .
i don,t bother downloading weekly security updates on this laptop ,
since i don,t use it for online banking,or credit card transactions ,
eg i never buy anything online.

beauf

SSD uses less power, has less heat, is silent, more robust. A good one is a lot faster at everything. It transforms any machine. My ancient laptop (from 2006) feels much faster now, especially with browsing the web, probably because the cache is so fast. I love it. The only issue is cost. Its expensive per MB. When I switch back to a machine with a HD I find it soo slow in comparison.

riclad

IF you are happy with spending extra on ssd vs standard sata,
thats fine.
my drive is silent, the only noise is hear is my laptop fan comes on ,maybe once every 20 minutes for a few seconds .
IF you go for ssd you,ll probably be limited to around 200gig approx.
AS far as i know i could put a 500 gig plus drive into my laptop if i need more space.

bonzodog2

Another option you might consider is getting a small SSD, say 64GB, just for the OS, and replacing the DVD drive with a SATA disk adapter, for document/media storage. Or just use an external drive.

beauf

It's possible op might not want to spend anything. Just a clean up.

The Black Oil

Didn't think this thread would have legs! 'Still slow' is what I've been told this evening. Guess scans can only do so much. It's a Dell Inspiron 1370.

An SSD is a good idea. I've used Crucial before.

I don't know where the installation CDs are at this point, but I'm sure there around somewhere.

unkel

The Black Oil wrote: »

Didn't think this thread would have legs! 'Still slow' is what I've been told this evening.

You never mentioned (and nobody ever asked :eek:) how much RAM the laptop has. My guess would be that it has 2GB. (if it is 4GB then please ignore my post)

This was ok when the laptop was new but not after 5 years of clogging up programs and crap. It would still be ok if you wiped and reinstalled the OP, but a less radical solution would be to increase the RAM

Upgrade it to 4GB (or 3GB if the laptop unfortunately uses 2 * 1GB already) for about €30

Should do the job, if they need more speed, than consider spending a bit more money again on an SSD

Remember an SSD is completely useless if the laptop is running out of RAM. Priorities!!!

The Black Oil

Good point: 3GB of RAM.

beauf

That Insprion 1370 can take up to 8GB of RAM. I would bring it up to 4GB minimum. Hard to find the specs of those machines. I think it might have come with a CULV processor. Too hard to work out what max CPU it can take. Not sure if you need to change that if its just for web stuff. Add Wifi N if it doesn't have it. Of course all this might just be an excuse to buy a new machine. A SSD can always be used in another machine. But buy a good make.

unkel

The Black Oil wrote: »

Good point: 3GB of RAM.

3GB of RAM? Did you check it physically or did you go by what Windows told you?

My guess (again, I like guessing ) is that it is actually 4GB but that you are running a 32 bit version of Windows. In that case it makes zero difference if you would upgrade to 8GB of RAM

Click the start button, then control panel and system and tell us which version of windows you have.

Also after the laptop starts up, click ctrl+shift+esc (keep holding them all) which brings up your task manager. Tell us in the performance tab exactly what RAM you have and how much RAM is in use

More advice will follow then

The Black Oil

It's Win 7 Home Premium. System type says x64-based PC. RAM 3GB, total physical memory is 2.87GB, 1.48 available.

I think the boot time is OK for its age, but family...:p

Mouse seems frozen now after I looked up the spec in System Information.

cerastes

The Black Oil wrote: »

Didn't think this thread would have legs! 'Still slow' is what I've been told this evening. Guess scans can only do so much. It's a Dell Inspiron 1370.

An SSD is a good idea. I've used Crucial before.

I don't know where the installation CDs are at this point, but I'm sure there around somewhere.

Im definitely following with interest, and another about upgrading to windows 10 as Im having problems with laptop being sluggish, Im using it and backing up to an external HDD, but its not complete so dont want to wipe and reinstall just yet.

Dont think I got installation cd's with mine, I thought I created some at the start but cant seem to locate them.

unkel wrote: »

You never mentioned (and nobody ever asked :eek:) how much RAM the laptop has. My guess would be that it has 2GB. (if it is 4GB then please ignore my post)

This was ok when the laptop was new but not after 5 years of clogging up programs and crap. It would still be ok if you wiped and reinstalled the OP, but a less radical solution would be to increase the RAM

Upgrade it to 4GB (or 3GB if the laptop unfortunately uses 2 * 1GB already) for about €30

Should do the job, if they need more speed, than consider spending a bit more money again on an SSD

Remember an SSD is completely useless if the laptop is running out of RAM. Priorities!!!

I thought my RAM was more than 2GB but just checked and from task manager it seems to be just 2, Ive another laptop that I want to get up and running (it had XP, but ID upgraded the RAM on it to 3GB), I might try swap the RAM out as a quick and short term solution to fixing the sluggishness.
How do I find out if Ive a 64bit version?
Im think my main laptop is 64bit, its a packard bell, can I swap my RAM from one to the other regrdless of one probably being 32 bit and the other 64bit?
I tried looking in device manager on the PBell, but cant see anything about how much RAM it will take or if its 64bit?
the other one which was Xp I think is 32 bit
(then I had ubuntu but due to not being able to connect printer and some other issues plus no time to look into problems, I reverted back to xp so not in use)