Hard drive full?

While spyware, adware and trojans are a cause for slower computers, I've found another common reason for slow computers - not enough hard disk space.

This is especially true for older machines, or those who download a lot, hmmm, illegal content.

A friend had a computer with only 40 megabytes free space, running Windows 98. The machine was as slow as molasses, and would crash frequently. By the time I saw the machine, he'd gotten rid of 20 megabytes, but it almost didn't work just the same.

The newer your machine is, the more free hard drive space it needs in order to work properly. As a rule, you should never go below 500 megabytes on older (Windows 98) machines.

So, let's get down to business, what can you safely get rid of and how.

1) Dump the contents of the trash can
Whenever you delete something, it ends up in the trash can. Just deleting the contents there (make sure there's nothing there you really wanted to keep), will free up some space. Do that before you start cleaning up the computer, and when you're done.

2) Temp folders
First, clear out the temp files. Often found at c:\windows\temp
You can get rid of most of the files, maybe all. Some older mail programs stored attachments in the temp folder, so be careful. All older files with a .tmp extension can be deleted right away. There could be other temp folders. CD-burners could have created images of CD's you've burned a long time ago, but forgot to delete. Here and there, temporary data may hide in folders. Find them, figure out what they are, and nuke'm.

3) Digital camera
If you've got a digital camera, chances are you've downloaded photos to your hard drive, because the camera's memorycard was full. That's fine if you've got the space, but if your hard drive is small, they take up a lot of space. Burn them to a CD, DVD or transfer them to a stand alone hard drive. Remember that CD's often lose their integrity after a few years. Images are so valuable, you should burn new copies after a few years.

4) Downloaded stuff
These come in different flavors. Eh, pictures? And of course movies and TV episodes. Some watch'em and then delete them. Others keep them on the hard drive. Consider burning them on DVD. DVD's are much more cost effective these days than CD's or hard drives. Just make sure you don't use disks that are too cheap. Use Nero CD-DVD speed afterwards if you're using that program, to double check that it's a successful burn. Downloaded stuff will fill your hard drive so fast, you won't believe it. Same problem if you edit video, like I do. Get the stuff off the computer as soon as possible. Make multiple copies, and give one to a friend (for his enjoyment, of course) if the material is important. If it's mega important, keep it on an extra hard drive.

5) Clean out cache folders
Whether you use Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox, they store temporary files on your hard drive to speed up your surfing. Just emptying those cache folders might give you 10 or 20 megabytes more space, for when you're in a real crunch. Open the browser, go to tools, properties, and find temporary internet files. For Firefox, it's under the Privacy tab, cache (mine was set to a max of 50 megabytes!).

6) Spyware removal
Finally, when you've removed some other clutter, it's time to start installing programs for removal of spyware, adware and trojans. Usually, you need more than one program. And NEVER download a program you see ads for or get spam e-mails about. NEVER! You see, some programs are spyware cloaked as spyware removal tools! And some have a business idea of offering something for free, then infecting your machine so badly you need their tool to restore the machine. Just don't fall for it. Check a security forum for current popular picks. Spywarewarrior forums might have helpful info.

6) Reformat
Some machines are so bogged down with forgotten programs, crashes and hard to remove spyware, dialers etc, you may as well reformat. Just remember to do as much of a backup as possible first. Check out imaging software, backup software available in windows and other tools. The easiest way is to use an extra hard drive installed in your machine (with enough empty space), or a stand alone hard drive.

I'd consider a newer hard drive for older machines. My 5-6 year old machine is on it's nth hard drive by now. They have a finite life, and a newer, bigger, faster hard drive can mean a significant increase in speed, as long as internal memory is also increased (at least 128 megabytes for an older one, and more is better. Mine has around 200).

For older machines, fdisk and install with the original windows CD or restore disk. Don't just reinstall windows - that's no use. You must wipe the hard drive completely clean. That means at the very least a format. Check that the machine can boot from the CD or DVD drive (you can do that in bios). The reason I say this, is that many people with old machines want to install the latest version of windows. That's NOT a good idea. You need a relatively snappy machine for that. Lots of internal memory, a large hard drive and a good processor. This problem would be especially noticeable for the around 5 year old laptops people still carry around...

For machines that came with Windows 2000 or Windows XP, if you have the original windows CD and can boot from CD, the process is usually fairly self explanatory.

Lost the original CD's? You could install Linux, of course?

Stand alone hard drives

They normally come assembled in an enclosure with USB2 connection and a power supply. Available in big and small sizes. I like the Firewire equipped ones, because they're well suited to video editing and music recording. Some are pretty cheap, so look around.

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