More on the computer thing...

[shadowkat]

Well, I may have figured out the computer problem - too many archived emails.
It probably helps if you remember to clean out your sent emails every once and while, doesn't it? I had over 1595 of them. These are basically copies of emails you send to people automatically copied to your system.

So tonight have spent at least an hour - uninstalling unnecessary programs, deleting old word, image files and downloads that I no longer use, and emptying my email archive as well as all my sent emails - which is still going on. Takes a long time to get rid of over 1595 emails. Learn from my stupidity - do not archive email. Or if you do, delete from time to time.

Have a couple of questions for my computer friends, who so kindly provided advice - enough to make me think through the problem.

1.what does Systems Resources: 37% free? (Before I uninstalled the Norton Antivirus and removed additional programs and files - 89% free. Now removing everything but the email archive = 61% free. Removing the email archive = 37% free. Is this a good thing??)

2. After you uninstall something, can you delete it from your hard drive?
What if there is no way to uninstall something? Should you delete? Or would that do horrid things to your computer?

Comments

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

A little better, thanks.

But still having internet connection problems. If it's a memory problem, not sure I can fix it - due to logistic/time constraints, not to mention that I'm really uneasy about fiddling with my computer's harddrive. Some things I don't mind fiddling with, ie - faucets, shower heads, toilets, but electrical ones, I leave to the experts.

Might be easier for me to get a new computer. (But I might ask Dell - to see if I can upgrade the one I have - without too much problem.)

[atpo-onm.livejournal.com]

One remaining thing you can do if you haven't already-- defragment your hard drive. This will be especially helpful after you've deleted all the unnecessary stuff, and can cause a significant speedup by reorganizing the file structure on your hard drive. Are you familiar with how to run this process? (It's pretty simple.)

Note: Be sure to temporarily disable your screen saver (if you use one) before running the utility, and don't run any other programs at the same time you're defragging, or the defragger will keep stopping and looping back.

[atpo-onm.livejournal.com]

OK, a second remaining thing that just now occurred to me-- the computer company that now owns the audio store I work for is currently selling off a batch of these laptops that were recently part of their leasing program. They're not very old, they look pretty decent, and the price is really reasonable-- like around $500 or so. They run XP Pro and have a pretty fast processor. Let me know if this is any interest to you, OK?

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

Thanks - but I think I want to try and get one from Dell - to be sure of what is in it. Although am still wavering on which to get. As cjlasky once told me - the difficulty Americans have is too many choices. I think that's my problem, too many choices and uncertainity what to go for.

I'm willing to spend up to 1300 on a notebook, give or take a bit. But would rather not go over the 2000 price mark.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

Uh no. How do you defragment and what does it mean?

Don't use a screen saver - so not a problem.

[atpo-onm.livejournal.com]

If you've never done this, then for sure it should be done. Easy to do, as I said. Just Google "defragment hard drive" and follow the links, there's plenty of them to choose from, many with explanations of what the term means.

The short answer is that defragmentation takes the scattered bits and pieces of your files stored on the hard drive, and re-organizes them so that they access more quickly. Most regular computer users do this every month to every 3 months or so to keep the machine running at top speed.

One main bug to look for is that the process can get stuck in a loop if other programs are running in the background or if Windows just darn well feels like it. (Esp. with WIndows 98). Once the process starts (it can take an hour or more, so don't do this if you will need the PC soon) come back in about 15 minutes and check the progress bar on the screen. If it's still at less than 5%, you're looping. Terminate the process and check with someone here for how to correct for this bug.