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To the comp tech-heads: A question...

Well guys, my computer has become exceptionally sluggish � it has been now for a 6-8 months. It's gotten to a point where I don�t wanna deal with it anymore (my tolerance is evaporating)

In the near future I shall be looking to purchase another 512mb or so of RAM, but in the mean time I am looking for a measure to help deal with this.

I am aware that if I reformat the bitch, she'll run uber smooth and quickly again, like the day I bought her a year and a 1/2 ago.

My question is this...

If decide to make a copy of HD and operating system as is (ie. ghost it), when I go and run my computer off the new HD, will things still run as slowly as they did before?

Or will they be sped up like as if I'd simply reformatted my HD?

I need to deal with the slowness of my AMD 3000 (512 DDR), but I do not wanna simply reformat things and lose all programs and settings I had installed (most my actual data like mp3s, movies, vids, docs, etc. are all of course backed up onto DVDs... it's the all progs and updates that I have installed that I'd rather not have to go through the hassle of reinstalling onto my system).

Ghosting my operating system drive seems the easiest solution, though I am unsure if it will have an impact of the slowest I currently experience with my comp.

Thanks for your opinions, advice and help.

-Jem-

put in that new stick of ram now, rather than later, and defrag. you will not need to ghost.

to answer your question though, you MIGHT see a slight increase in performance. just get the RAM

If you're sitting on an AMD 3000 w/ 512 DDR RAM it shouldn't be running that slow.

Consider you may have some virus or spyware issues onboard.

Do you have any spyware programs running currently and if so when was the last time you did an update and deep scan of the system?

What virus protection are you using currently? Again, when was the last time you did an update and deep scan of the system?

Also check out your msconfig for how many processes begin on startup, if you need a guide on how to do that PM me and I'll walk you through what you need to do to clean out the msconfig area.

My best advice right now would be the following:

1. Head to your Add/Remove Programs and clean out what you don't need in there. It will free up HDD space and clean out some unneeded bloat on the system.

2. Degragement the computer using a program called O&O Defragementer which you can find here

3. Download Microsoft Anti-Spyware, update it and do a full scan of the system.

4. Download SpyBot Search and Destroy, update it and do a full scan of the system.

5. If you are not currently running a virus scanning program, I would highly recommend Avast! as your primary protection software. I had been using Norton for years and thought it was fine until a friend twisted my arm into testing this out. Found 2 virus' right away and uses less bloat functions than NAV ever did. Personal preference but it runs famously.

6. I would also recommend using Firefox as your primary browser as Internet Explorer constantly is prone to popups and spyware, again a personal preference.

7. If this doesn't at least kick things up a notch for you, then a format might be in order, although this should help solve some of the issues of sluggish-ness.

As for the original question on doing a full image backup, that is pretty pointless. Find what you need (pictures, documents, e-mail, etc) and save it to DVD or whatnot. You can always install the applications you need at a later time. Computers become sluggish a lot of the time from installing and deleting programs with files left behind that are not deleted causing conflicts with other programs. Defragmentation will help with that, but a format is the only clear cut way to solve the problem.

Hope that helps. Any problems, PM me.

Chris covered it all. Well done sir.

Spyware and virus could be an issue, worthwhile to check regardless of whether it's affecting your performance or not.

Secondly, what OS are you running? If it's Windows XP home or pro, which I suspect, 512 is realistically the minimum you should be using to run most things adequately, even though the specs for XP are much less.

Thirdly, open up your task manager and determine how much physical memory you have available when you are typically using your computer. ie when you notice it's slowing down, use the task manager to view how much free memory is available

If you have anything less than 64 MB free, you are definitely in a situation where more memory would help you out. As you run out of RAM for use by processes, your computer starts to copy things out of memory to the page file, this causes slow downs due to the transfer of data from the page file, which resides on your hard drive, is much slower than accessing the data directly stored in RAM.

Also, while you have the task manager up, make sure that none of your processes are ramping up your processor usage. You can check the proc usage and see if any processes are hogging it and causing bottlenecks at the CPU.

I would say unless you are getting a markedly faster performing HD or your old one was having physical issues hampering performance, you prolly won't see much of a difference by simply replacing the drive and copying over the image. Defragging regularly can greatly enhance your drive's performance since it takes less time for it to find data it's looking for on the drive. That and more RAM is most likely your two best and most cost effective ways to increase performance.

Re: To the comp tech-heads: A question...

you can either try defrag + spyware checking + registry checking (use JV16 powertools) or re-format..

don't bother ghosting until it runs smoothly..

best to keep updating ur ghost image to a re-writable or something so you can update it when you install new proggies, etc...

quote:

Originally posted by [NFC]Wave

Just to update on a few things you mentioned in your (awesome) post, Chris:

I running Windows XP Home

For Antivirus, I use Norton Antivirus Corporate Edition (7.61.928)
^^ I auto updates and I usually force an update every couple of days outta habit just to ensure everything is up to date.
Last time I ran a full sys virus sweep woulda been like last week.

For Spyware, I use Webroot Spy Sweeper (4.0.4), and
NoAdware 3.0, and
Microsoft AntiSpyware as well.
^^ All are kept up to date religiously and I auto scan my HD every 2nd night while sleeping. I run the intensive spyware searches usually about once a week or so, give or take.
All run actively to detect and monitor if spyware tries to install itself onto the compy.

I have no viruses detected, and the machine, according to all 3 of these devices is free of spyware.

I do have Firefox. I use it about 50% of the time. I still enjoy IE, so I tend to always go back and forth between them depending what I'm doing.

-Jem-

Imaging your drive and restoring the image on another PC will accomplish nothing whatsoever. You're just moving your OS decay instead of repairing it.

Further to that, restoring a drive image on a different computer with different hardware is likely going to create several additional problems. At the very least, you'll have useless drivers wasting CPU cycles, and at worst, you might not be able to boot at all.

Also, those aren't very good anti-Spyware programs. Stick to Spybot and Ad-Aware.

quote:

Originally posted by DigiNut Imaging your drive and restoring the image on another PC will accomplish nothing whatsoever. You're just moving your OS decay instead of repairing it.

Thats what I figured. Just wanted to make sure the logic I ran through my head was in fact the case - wanted to verify that it really wouldn't do shit for performance.

quote:

Further to that, restoring a drive image on a different computer with different hardware is likely going to create several additional problems. At the very least, you'll have useless drivers wasting CPU cycles, and at worst, you might not be able to boot at all.

Not a new comp, just another HD ill be purchasing bc im too low and space and dont wanna have a million DVDs kicking around. Ill just buy another 250 gigger sometime soon.

quote:

Also, those aren't very good anti-Spyware programs. Stick to Spybot and Ad-Aware.

Yea, Ad-Aware has been very good to me where others havent. I didnt like v1.2 of Spybot, but I just downloaded 1.4, the latest and since you and chris speak so highly of it, ill put it back into operation!

-Jem-

If you are getting a second drive, you should also create a small partition on it, about 2 gb max, and set your page file to be written only to it.

Ensure that your second drive is also on a different IDE or SATA controller (the latter being de facto since it's a 1 controller to 1 device relationship), and this will slightly improve performance for you as well.

Creating a smaller parition and putting the page file on that partition will limit the amount of defragmentation and allow for faster access to page file data. Putting it on a different drive and controller than the OS drive means that you can have simultaneous reading and writing operations on both drives, meaning your OS will not be waiting for page file operations or vice versa.

quote:

Originally posted by DigiNut Also, those aren't very good anti-Spyware programs. Stick to Spybot and Ad-Aware.

Ad-Aware was purchased by a Spyware and Adware company a little over 6 months ago so it is essentially pure adware aside from it's medial ability to update and remove simple spyware and malware.

It is NOT a good choice.

Best advice would be to run Spybot and Microsoft Anti-Spyware ans MSAS purchased the original company that was once Ad-Aware.

As for NAV, I would at least test using Avast! as like I said I had been a follower of Symantec for years without a problem. Withing 5 minutes of installing Avast! it found 2 virus'.

Your choice. I only give you my opinions and personal experience.

EDIT - My mistake, incorrect in what I posted: MS Anti-Spyware purchased Giant. link

I agree with most of the above.

No point in imaging a compromised OS only to carry it over.

Clean your existing OS or bite the bullet and start from scratch (but save your personal stuff obviously).
I always keep all my drivers and personal stuff tucked away on a different drive from the OS, perferably a different physical drive, not just a logical one as this speeds up a reformat A LOT and saves you from heartache if your OS drive dies.

Good luck

quote:

Originally posted by [NFC]Wave Ad-Aware was purchased by a Spyware and Adware company a little over 6 months ago so it is essentially pure adware aside from it's medial ability to update and remove simple spyware and malware. It is NOT a good choice. Best advice would be to run Spybot and Microsoft Anti-Spyware ans MSAS purchased the original company that was once Ad-Aware. As for NAV, I would at least test using Avast! as like I said I had been a follower of Symantec for years without a problem. Withing 5 minutes of installing Avast! it found 2 virus'. Your choice. I only give you my opinions and personal experience. EDIT - My mistake, incorrect in what I posted: MS Anti-Spyware purchased Giant. link

Thanks Chris, I really appreciate your time and advice here.

I have installed O&O Defrag now. Gonna run tonite - hopefully it'll help somewhat.

I have installed the new Spybot now. Run and done.

I just installed Avast! Professional 4.6. And it has already detected 4 viruses. So I'm taking care of that.

Can you PM me your MSN addy, so I can talk to you re: the msconfig business.

-Jem-

quote:

Originally posted by Fir3start3r I agree with most of the above. No point in imaging a compromised OS only to carry it over. Clean your existing OS or bite the bullet and start from scratch (but save your personal stuff obviously). I always keep all my drivers and personal stuff tucked away on a different drive from the OS, perferably a different physical drive, not just a logical one as this speeds up a reformat A LOT and saves you from heartache if your OS drive dies. Good luck

When I buy the next HD (preferably a 250gb, might settle for a 200 though), I'll only be putting my media and docs on that one.

I'll leave my other HD (60 gigs) to be just progs and windows

format

quote:

Originally posted by loconet format

This is pretty much the correct answer for everything.

quote:

Originally posted by [NFC]Wave As for NAV, I would at least test using Avast! as like I said I had been a follower of Symantec for years without a problem. Withing 5 minutes of installing Avast! it found 2 virus'.

I'd like to know which viruses it identified. I noticed that the new version of Symantec AV Corporate has been getting incredibly paranoid and anal-retentive with respect to what it identifies, and I'm wondering if this is perhaps the reason why Avast seems to "detect" more than Symantec.

Fussing over virus detection is a wasted effort anyway. Just ask Marcus Ranum about "enumerating badness". Anti-virus, intrusion detection, signature-based firewalling... on a fundamental level, these things are not security, they are merely gimmicks masquerading as such and hyped as such by their manufacturers.

Real security is "default deny", not "default permit". Every program should run with restricted access unless specifically required and authorized to do otherwise. If this simple principle were at least applied to all web browsers and e-mail clients, nearly 0% of all spyware/malware/virii would actually be able to infect computers.

also clear your startup, will free up some ram

Start > Run > msconfig > startup tab , then disable all (except the ones you acually wanna start up)

quote:

Originally posted by DigiNut Real security is "default deny", not "default permit". Every program should run with restricted access unless specifically required and authorized to do otherwise. If this simple principle were at least applied to all web browsers and e-mail clients, nearly 0% of all spyware/malware/virii would actually be able to infect computers.

Very much the truth. Too bad the majority of the public leave everything 'as is' and have no idea they're not protecting themselves.

quote:

also clear your startup, will free up some ram Start > Run > msconfig > startup tab , then disable all (except the ones you acually wanna start up)

With doing this you want to watch what you enable and disable though as well as some thing such as antivirus and spyware prevention should start when you boot up.

I sent Jamie to this page as you can run a search on items for the startup that may be unrecognizable.

First off, I'll say do nothing drastic before you're at 1GB of RAM. Don't expect XP to run flawlessy at 512MB. It's too close too borderline to say otherwise. Get to 1GB and end the guessing games...it's a small price to pay. Find out what kind of RAM you have and search hardforum.com for it.

What's your protection schema right now, as far as virus protection/spyware scans/windows update? Only you can tell us what you need in this aspect by detailing your current regimen.

I would defrag with Diskeeper, and "set and forget it" to run while you're sleeping every other day.

It will be the same way after you apply the Ghost image.

quote:

Originally posted by [NFC]Wave 3. Download Microsoft Anti-Spyware, update it and do a full scan of the system.

how do you validate windows in order to download this program, when you have a second copy of windows pro from a friend?? lol
FACK!

quote:

Originally posted by Playa24_7 how do you validate windows in order to download this program, when you have a second copy of windows pro from a friend?? lol FACK!

haha

You don't, you message me for a copy of the software.

~j

You two are good friends with that man Juarez I see

Arr...

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