Patti,
At this time, the clean install means, basically, wiping the disk clean and just reinstalling windows. No repairing, no trying to upgrade or trying to maintain anything.
Yes, it does mean you will need to back up data, although in most cases, the data you really care about will be Documents you made in say office, or pictures or music. Those should be in places you should, hopefully, know where they are. To back them up, there are three ways.
One - Get one of those portable drives that offer 'one touch backup'. They will take time, but they will go through your system and try to back up relavent data.
Two - Get a USB hard drive and hand copy files, again mostly office documents, pictures or music, to that hard drive. This implies you know where said files are.
Three - Ask someone to help copy said files. While you state you are a novice, I am sure you have some friends who can help you at least save the important stuff you want.
The main thing you will have to understand, however, is that we will also sometimes need to know more about your system. Your system specs only state your OS. Some of the slowness can also be attributed to the specs of the machine. Things like Memory (Is it 1 gig, 2 gig, 3 gig or 4 gigs of memory). Given your system specs says Windows 7 x32, it suggests you have a maximum of about 3 to 3.5 gigs of memory possible. The only other thing that comes into play for speed issues besides malware running random things on your system is just how much memory is being used overall. High memory use means high Virtual memory use, which will slow down the machine as the computer is juggling memory to disk to do things. A solution to this besides a clean install would be to go to Windows 7 x64 and upping the memory to 6 gigs or more if you are using more than 2.8 to 3 gigs of memory on the system to help minimize the memory to disk juggling.
Again, while it may seem over the top to you, you can always ask a friend to help you out that might know what we are talking about, but I would first check the original suggestions ahead of this post before doing what I suggest.
The important thing to note, we will be asking questions, as we are not all using the same hardware or setup as you, or the same programs, which will always mean different answers based on information you give us. If you are thorough in the information you give us, the more accurate our responses will be.
At this time, the clean install means, basically, wiping the disk clean and just reinstalling windows. No repairing, no trying to upgrade or trying to maintain anything.
Yes, it does mean you will need to back up data, although in most cases, the data you really care about will be Documents you made in say office, or pictures or music. Those should be in places you should, hopefully, know where they are. To back them up, there are three ways.
One - Get one of those portable drives that offer 'one touch backup'. They will take time, but they will go through your system and try to back up relavent data.
Two - Get a USB hard drive and hand copy files, again mostly office documents, pictures or music, to that hard drive. This implies you know where said files are.
Three - Ask someone to help copy said files. While you state you are a novice, I am sure you have some friends who can help you at least save the important stuff you want.
The main thing you will have to understand, however, is that we will also sometimes need to know more about your system. Your system specs only state your OS. Some of the slowness can also be attributed to the specs of the machine. Things like Memory (Is it 1 gig, 2 gig, 3 gig or 4 gigs of memory). Given your system specs says Windows 7 x32, it suggests you have a maximum of about 3 to 3.5 gigs of memory possible. The only other thing that comes into play for speed issues besides malware running random things on your system is just how much memory is being used overall. High memory use means high Virtual memory use, which will slow down the machine as the computer is juggling memory to disk to do things. A solution to this besides a clean install would be to go to Windows 7 x64 and upping the memory to 6 gigs or more if you are using more than 2.8 to 3 gigs of memory on the system to help minimize the memory to disk juggling.
Again, while it may seem over the top to you, you can always ask a friend to help you out that might know what we are talking about, but I would first check the original suggestions ahead of this post before doing what I suggest.
The important thing to note, we will be asking questions, as we are not all using the same hardware or setup as you, or the same programs, which will always mean different answers based on information you give us. If you are thorough in the information you give us, the more accurate our responses will be.
My Computer
- Computer Manufacturer/Model Number
- Alienware Area 51 Desktop and Dell Inspirion 17R (N7010)
- OS
- Windows 7 Ultimate x64 and Home Premium x64
- CPU
- Intel i7 960 (3.2 GHz Quad Core)
- Motherboard
- Alienware Intel based X58
- Memory
- 12 Gigs (Triple Channel)
- Graphics Card(s)
- Alienware OEM nVidia GTX 560 Ti (1.25 Gig)
- Sound Card
- Creative Labs X-Fi Titanium
- Monitor(s) Displays
- Samsung PX2370 LED 23" Monitor
- Screen Resolution
- 1920x1080
- Hard Drives
- 2 320 Gig SATA in Raid 1 Configuration (System/App)
1 1 Tera SATA (Games)
1 1 Tera SATA (Data/Music/Videos)
- PSU
- 750 Watt Power Supply
- Case
- Alienware Area 51 Desktop
- Cooling
- Liquid Cooled
- Keyboard
- Logitech G510
- Mouse
- Microsoft Trackball Explorer
- Internet Speed
- Cable
