Cleaning out Mr. Computer

[righter1]

So, I was running disk defrag last night and was shocked :eek: to discover I only had 11% of my hard drive left! :eek: It's a 60 GB, but I guess I've gotten a little happy with the pictures since I bought my digital camera last year. :o

I'm trying to go through and remove stuff today (and have vowed to move all my pictures that I can do a DVD... or two... or three) but have thought of moving stuff to an external hard drive. Any tips/suggestions for cleaning up my machine? I'm trying to figure out which programs should go, but half of them, I don't know what they do, or I use all the time, or have plans to use... *sigh*

[Ransom v. Unman]

Oh! Dangit! There's a programme out there that doesn't cost too much, and it's way better at defragging than the default Microsoft software!

I'll try to get it to you!

Otherwise, an external hard-disc (or even a slave HD to you C:\ drive) might work well.

[righter1]

Oh! Dangit! There's a programme out there that doesn't cost too much, and it's way better at defragging than the default Microsoft software!

I'll try to get it to you!

Otherwise, an external hard-disc (or even a slave HD to you C:\ drive) might work well.

What's a slave?

And, I read a manual a while back on repairing my laptop (it was super thick and would have to go back to the library to find it again--I found it only 'cause I was wandering on the same aisle Hubby was on looking for Auto / Boat books, and the computer section was down that same way) and they recommended a certain defrag program, which I got for a free 30 or 45 day trial... it did do a WAY better job than Windows, I just can't remember the name of it. I need to go get that book again... but it's so heavy, I don't think I'm supposed to lift it... ;)

[lynnmosher]

There's a good freebie called Defraggler. It's recommended my PC magazine. It's what we use.

[lynnmosher]

I asked my computer-savvy husband about your post. He said he has about 3000+ pictures on his laptop and it's only using 4-5GB. He said to be very careful removing programs. It's best to take it to a techie and have them look at it. Do you use c-cleaner? This is recommended by all the magazines.

http://www.ccleaner.com

It's free! Wipes out all the junk you accumulate from the internet. I use it several times a day. Hope this helps.

[wgjones3]

The first thing you need to do is figure out what kinds of files are filling your hard drive.

Use this: http://windirstat.info/ Don't delete any system files. Mainly it will show you how much space your pictures are taking up compared to other file types. Delete what you don't want and burn the rest.

Programs don't typically take up a whole lot of space. And programs vital to Windows functionality won't be listed in the add/remove panel anyway.

You're probably looking at less than a hundred dollars for an external hard drive, maybe fifty or so. It's quicker than burning to DVDs.

[Phy]

http://www.ccleaner.com

It's free! Wipes out all the junk you accumulate from the internet. I use it several times a day.

Several times /a day/?!

This is where a cynic would observe it's time to get a mac. ;)

[lynnmosher]

Nah! This laptop is only a little over one year old. But maybe one day. I'd like to. I could use the c-cleaner once a day but I just use it out of habit whenever I get off the internet .

[righter1]

The first thing you need to do is figure out what kinds of files are filling your hard drive.

Use this: http://windirstat.info/ Don't delete any system files. Mainly it will show you how much space your pictures are taking up compared to other file types. Delete what you don't want and burn the rest.

Programs don't typically take up a whole lot of space. And programs vital to Windows functionality won't be listed in the add/remove panel anyway.

You're probably looking at less than a hundred dollars for an external hard drive, maybe fifty or so. It's quicker than burning to DVDs.

Downloaded it. Now, I'm cursing the podcasts I subscribe to... I've got over 7 GB in Rush Limbaugh alone!!!! Yeesh... The next biggest (for some reason) is my church's video podcast... *sigh* (It's like 4 or 5 GB)

I asked my computer-savvy husband about your post. He said he has about 3000+ pictures on his laptop and it's only using 4-5GB. He said to be very careful removing programs. It's best to take it to a techie and have them look at it. Do you use c-cleaner? This is recommended by all the magazines.

http://www.ccleaner.com

It's free! Wipes out all the junk you accumulate from the internet. I use it several times a day. Hope this helps.

I'll check this out, too, but it's not showing a huge percentage in photo's either. But, since I'd started doing so much with photography this year, I feared this was the source. I don't shoot raw, though, but I leave my camera on the highest quality setting so each pic is a few MB. A photographer friend of mine shoots raw and has to get mega huge hard drives and external drives to store his pics.

I have to apparently be careful with what I use since Trend Micro AntiVirus thinks certain things are viruses (including something MS Money does on startup... bizarre.)

And, ooh! The Micro Center ad just came!!! :) Gotta go check that out.

Thanks for the help, ya'll!

[Xenia]

Why not just buy some more memory?!

[righter1]

Why not just buy some more memory?!

It's a laptop... kinda hard to do.