How to thoroughly clean my C: drive + other concerns

[0516dp]

Hello All and thanks for reading.

I'm certain there are many (many!) discussion threads regarding my concern, but it's a bit overwhelming to search for answers when I don't even know the questions to ask. I've attached the print out of my current system report for your technical reading.

To start with, my laptop's (Lenovo 3000 N200) hard drive is 98% filled with files I'm not familiar with. Is this what's causing my system to run so slow and also to freeze up on an almost regular basis? I find myself using CTRL+ALT+DELETE to run Task Mgr because it freezes-up so regularly.

I use 'Ashampoo WinOptimizer' to clean each time I'm using my laptop but still there is less than 3 GB available. Frequent Defrags and Clean Disk processes are run also.

Also -- how long are we to keep Windows Update Files? These seem to be taking up alot of space.

Any insight you can throw my way will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks very much.

 

[Digital Life]

Have you tried a Extended Disk Cleanup, Try this tutorial and see if it helps

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/76383-disk-cleanup-extended.html

 

[torchwood]

Hi 516,
Very SOON your comp is going to lock up because youve run out of space.
You need to get rid of any duplicates
You have 2 pdf readers delete 1
Browsers you can turn off IE11, Programs/features > features top left uncheck it,
Get an external usb transfer some of your songs to it for the time being, until your sorted
Uninstall Visual basics (the ones with years in the name). if a prog needs one it will tell you
Your JAVA is way out of date update, its possible that you have picked up malware because of this

I strongly recommend you perform an ESET ON-LINE scan, as you have little space, IT WILL TAKE SOMETIME because of the amount of data, dissable MSE whilst scanning.

Roy

.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

How much space have you allotted to System Restore?

Do you use hibernation?

How much space do you have allotted to the page file (virtual memory)?

I would download and install Tree Size Free from this link. It will give you a good graphical representation of what is taking up the space on the drive.

TreeSize Free - Quickly Scan Directory Sizes and Find Space Hogs

Run Tree Size Free after you do the extended disk cleanup as recommended above by sml156.

You might post a screen shot of what Tree Size Free shows you after it completes analyzing your drive.

I would be skeptical of Ashampoo Winoptimizer and any other product that claims to "optimize".

Slowness could be due to the very low hard drive free space as well as many other issues. Maybe you have 100 or more processes going and all kinds of unnecessary applications running automatically every time you start up. What have you done to check that?

 

[0516dp]

Thanks everyone for your input and suggestions. I really appreciate the prompt replies.

I do use Hibernation solely because the system takes upwards of 3 minutes to start once I power it on. Is Hibernation not recommended?

As to how much memory is allotted for the virtual memory, I'm afraid you've lost me on that one. Where might I find the answer to this?

I will indeed run the TreeSize Free as suggested and will post the results. Also, I'll run the
extended disk cleaner. I'll remove the duplicate PDF reader, IE11 and will uninstall the Ashampoo program - it's not impressed me to this point, that's for sure.

I'll see how well I do with these great suggestions and will post more in the next day or so.

To go back to one of my original questions, what's the protocol for saving old Windows Updates? Is it necessary to hoard all these files?

Thanks again all.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

Hibernation can be useful, but it does take up a considerable amount of disk space--probably around 3 GB in your case. It can be turned off and you would regain that space. But for now, you can leave it alone and see how much space you can gain back through other methods.

Taking 3 minutes to start is abnormal, even though you have a fairly weak processor.

Go to the start button search box and type in msconfig and follow the link. Open the startup tab. How many things are checked there? All of that stuff is being started every time you reboot. That takes time. Windows will run with NOTHING checked there. As a test, make note of every item that has a checkmark and then uncheck all of them other than anti-virus and reboot a couple of times. Does the machine then start more quickly?

After a fresh boot, how many processes do show as running in Task Manager processes tab, at the lower left?

Virtual memory: check through control panel/system/advanced system settings/advanced tab/settings button under performance section/advanced tab on next screen. You will see a number in MB for "total paging file size for all drives" under the "virtual memory", along with a change button. I'm guessing your PC will show somewhere around 3000 mb. You can change it to a lower number and regain that space if necessary. I'd just keep it in mind for now.

 

[AddRAM]

The best and fastest thing you can do is re install windows on a new solid state drive, you obviously have a lot of things you don`t need on your PC, give it a serious consideration, it only takes 15 minutes to install Windows and you will Love your PC again.

Give it some thought, I will gladly help you every step of the way

Personal Message me anytime

Ask any questions you have, there are a great bunch of people here

SSD 850 EVO 2.5" SATA III 250GB | Samsung Solid State Drives

Please fill in your specs to the best of your ability.

 

[AddRAM]

As far as windows updates go, you never want to get rid of them, but windows does make a duplicate of each update that you can get rid of simply using Disk Cleanup.