General Chat

Phyll I have sent you a PM which will hopefully help

Well!!! Erolsheep & KenSe I have spent almost all day fiddling about and STILL I can't find anything to say 'defragment your pc' automatic or otherwise sooooo I am going to give up now and forget all about it.
Thanks for your help in trying to help an ignoramus regarding computers and its technology.
Phyll

If I wanted to defrag the office then I'd just let the dogs loose in it.
All that remains is to bag up the contents and there you have it, an empty defragged office.

As it is I nearly break my neck several times a day.

I imagine you could do much the same with a house, a half dozen boys from 6 to 16 should do the trick.

Many people could do with having their brain's defragged so if you know of a Matrix service point do let me know.

Could someone tell me if I could defrag my house??

If so how?

If you have any FAT drives then defrag them 1st and then convert to NTFS.

Otherwise don't bother unless your computer is really ancient (pre XP) or you have FAT drives. Just leave it be. EZ. Costs nothing.

An ez way to run defrag is like this:
Start Menu : Run
type in "cmd" - a dos typoe window will appear
type "defrag C:" or whatever the disk you wish to defrag
It will be defragged.
You will not notice any improvement in performance but the display mesmerises some people.

Most people think that the disk file is spread all over the disk and the computer reads / writes in little bits here and there. Hence "defragging" will get all the bits back together and improve efficiency.

That is not what happens. The OS makes available a big chunk of contiguous disk dressed up as real memory and read/write operations take place into this space which is entirely hidden from the user. In that way "fragmentation" is largely avoided. However sudden loss of power can cause no end of problems.

With modern SATA disks there are all sorts of other optimizations as well.

If you are short of disk space here is a way to get rid of the hundreds of backup files that Updates create:

log on with an adminstrator account
set yr system to show system files and folders
a folder called "system information" will appear.
go to the security settings for this folder and set an adminstrator to have full privileges
open the folder
you will see all the restore point folders
delete as you wish but keep the latest half dozen


a folder in the root

Try this sequence:

Control Panel

System and Maintenance

Performance Information & Tools

Advanced Tools

Open Disk Defragmenter.

Then you can set up a schedule for running it regularly or you can run it directly.


Defragging doesn't alter any data on your PC so it won't affect signing into sites.

'fraid it is going over my head now. Followed instructions from Errolsheep and am blowed if I can see 'defrag your hard drive' in the administration tools. Think I will get someone in to do it for me. Not having problems with PC - touch wood- at moment but was just wondering what to do for peace of mind.

Thank you all once again.
Phyll

Phyll

We have a good local computer shop ..... they call themselves the geeks :-D ........ and I try to take my computer in there once a year.


They clean it up, get rid of any nasty viruses that might have got through my security, clean the fans, inside the tower, etc. Then they re-load all my files for me, and check that everything is working correctly.

I do have to pay for it, of course, but it is pretty cheap ............... and leaves me confident that everything has been done that can be done.


They will even come to the house .......... which is great, because I myself could not carry the tower to them, even though they are within 2 blocks of me, if OH was not here.


As Kay suggested.................

see if there is a good little computer "geek" shop or person near you ...... lots of them operate privately out of their houses. There might even be a teenager around!

ask friends / neighbours for recommendations, and

see if they would come to the house .......... that saves you have to unplug everything from your "tower".



For the immediate ............... try defrag ................. it is easy to do, and you won't lose anything except for having to sign on to sites when you might not usually do so.



sylvia

hehehe over the Windows comment

I mostly agree with you Rollo

( Back in the real world )

The only applications that actually need a great deal of memory are upper end photo and video editing packages, plus the more professional sound editing apps. These applications run from the "cheap end" Photoshop into the thousands of pounds.

The vast majority of typical home office user apps are written in such a way as to run happily with 512 / 1 GB of memory and coexist with other apps without too much resort to the swap file. Quite apart from using additional memory most popular user apps are not even written to take advantage of threading which has been around for > 10 years still less multiple cores. That is why there is so little real hands on speed feel to a go faster modern pc with all the goodies UNLESS you are running modern games which will test the metal or you do a lot of virtualisation ( what is that ? don't worry ).

So that is one reason why going for > 2 GB RAM is a waste of time. 32 bit OS does not need it, cannot use more than 3 GB.

What is the point then of a 64 bit OS which will use a 64 but CPU ?

Well right away the memory is "devalued" in that where before 2 GB was fine the min. for a smooth experience rises to 4 GB. More money.

64 bit AMD CPUs are 10 a penny secondhand. Unfortunately MOBS based on them tend to have more than their fair share of obscure problems resulting in the dreaded BSOD (blue screen of death). Result most Athlons run as 32 bit! Although late P4 Prescotts can handle 64bit Intel did not release a 32/64 bit mainstream CPU until the dual core and up series in 2007.

OK then, the box has an Intel Core Duo AMD Phenom or better, good to go with 64 bit ?
hmm not so fast.

All the laptop versions will only have two memory slots. It is near certain that you will find either 2x512MB or 2 x 1 GB memory. Thus you need to fork out for 4GB min of laptop RAM on an aging box (laptops die after 3-4 years). Hmm.

On the desktop if it is a cheap box there will be only 2 RAM slots and the same problem. Even if there are 4 slots with 2 free allowing more RAM to be installed on many older machines DDR2 memory is needed and this is getting pricey. Modern DDR3 RAM is much cheaper.

OK, let suppose we have not maxed out our credit card and the RAM is no 4 GB or better, the CPU is a some kind of Intel Core or poss. a late Athlon X2 or a Phenom. If it is any older forget about 64 bit. Also forget about 64 bit if your disk drives use IDE/PATA rather than SATA controller.

The very next problem is the old bogey DEVICE DRIVERS. An awful lot of device drivers are either buggy or just will not run on 64 bit. This means buying new hardware. Quite a lot of older software will not run in 64 bit either or runs more slowly in a sort of emulation mode.

Advantages for most people in running with 64 bit OS even in Windows 7 ?
Absolutely none which is why Windows 7 32 bit is installed 20-1 against 64 bit.

Most computers used by GRU members then are unlikely to be able to use > 3 GB memory without an OS upgrade and even if they do the net benefit is likely to be sub zero.

It has been supposed that video rendition would drive the take up of 32 bit on user platforms. Not at all. Although it is true - given updated software - that MP4 can be processed far more easily in a 64 bit environment the ISPs do not like the extra traffic at all while smart phones are not about a lot of power hungry RAM. Instead a replacement for MP4 is on the way far more efficient which suits both ISPs and smart phone makers. And we can all go on using our aging 32 bit OS with no hassles at all.

If you have a machine less than 3 years old than by the the best bang for buck is to install a SSD (solid state drive ) as system drive now prices have fallen a lot. The improvement on laptops especially is amazing.

btw the Space Shuttle spent its whole lifetime with a DEC PDP 16 bit as the on board main computer. Didn't run Windows though lol.

32 bit no 64 bit yes

Therefore, I stand by my comment that Windows 7 is capable of using more than 3 gig of RAM

In fact, a 64 bit installation could theoretically run up to 192 gig

With a 32 bit installation, if you have 4 gig of RAM you could use anything from 3 up to around 3.5 depending on your spec

fao Mr Sheep

It is a mathematical impossibility for any 32 bit Windows OS to use more than 4 GB RAM. One GB of address space is reserved so the most user RAM that can be accessed is 3 GB. However the only win32 apps that will use more than 2 GB are very heavy duty video editing apps ( which also need heavy duty graphics hardware ) and thus installing more than 2 GB on a 32 bit system a usually a waste of money.

baa

It is not a very good idea to install 64 bit versions of WIndows XP or WIndows 7 on older machines as the underlying device drivers and other systems tend not to support a 64 bit OS very well. Any machine newer than 3 years should be ok. With a 64 bit OS the minimum install for decent performance is 4 GB and 8 GB is worthwhile. Beyond that for desktop systems more memory is only needed for heavy duty video editing and extreme games freaks with multiple screens.

A handy feature of several 64bit linux distros and Windows 7/8 Pro is that it is possible to run virtual 32 sessions of XP, Win95, MacOS etc which can be handy if you want to run legacy software. It can of course be done with 32 bit but the memory problem tends to kill performance.

fwiw the industry expects the home desktop/laptop PC to largely disappear over the next few years, its role being take over by SmartTVs, mobile phones and tablets.

Thank you all. I am most grateful. Have had PC for almost 5 years & done nothing of this sort of thing before. My SIL usually helps me out but he has lost so much stuff in trying to help.

I have vista and it does have the option for auto defrag. as Errol says.

if memory serves me correct there is the option for it to be automatic in Vista.

Go to Control Panel and click on System and Maintenance.
Under the Tools section (I think it says Administrator Tools) click on "Defragment your hard drive".
You should then have the option to enable or disable the automatic facility.

Phyll....

If you have *good * local PC repair shop I'd take PC along and get them to give it a look over,explain what the problem is...,,,,,,,,if you arent confident in whats what,,,,,,,also get them to give the fan/s a clean out at the same time.

I have Vista - does this do automatic please

Unless you have changed default settings, Windows 7 (onwards) defragging is automatic.

Rollo - I assure you that Windows 7 is capable of using more than 3 gig of RAM

IGP is quite correct in saying that defragging is a bit of a waste of time unless you have a pretty ancient piece of kit. If you must use it then there are much better defraggers than the Microsoft built in one. Here is a reliable site for such gadgets:
http://www.betanews.com

Defrag is harmful to solid state drives though I suppose few of these are running with XP.

Disk cleanup is a double edged sword. As has been pointed out you may end up ferreting around for log on details and such and the empty cache will result in many apps eg Google Maps having to rebuild the cache which may or not be a problem depending on yr connection.

ALWAYS make sure you have an alternative login with administrative privileges.
ALWAYS make sure that "System Restore" is installed - this allows you to boot into text mode. It is an install option.
NEVER run yr normal account with admin privileges.

If you are running Firefox install the addons "AdBlock" and "NoScripts" which gives you total control of what web sites get up to on yr machine. Free. The performance boost is very noticable which is not usually the case with defrag.

Having enough memory will make a lot more difference to performance than mucking about with disk cleanup and defrag.

In order to run XP/SP3 or Win7 the hardware requirements are not very onerous.
The OS is not capable of using more than 3 GB of memory and in fact 2 GB is the sweet spot. DDR3 RAM is very cheap and even for older DDR2 RAM a 1GB stick is only £ 10-15.

Many thanks to you all for your generous help. I will see what sort of mess I make of it all.
Phyll