computer help: Please help me with my computer! - Help.com

Scan disk drives for errors everyday and defragment once a weeks, that’s what I was told, I havne’t defragmented this computer in a year tho hehe :p
As for cookies and stuff I do that every week usually.

It really depends on your time on the internet, and how much you download onto your computer. The more you download and erase off your computer the more it gets fragged, and requires defrag (twice a year min). What you REALLY want to make sure you have is some antispyware program, and run it weekly along with your virus protection. Cleaning up cache and cookies once a week is a good deal too.

Get Linux! www.ubuntu.com No viruses. No defragment. Runs faster than Windows.

If you don’t wanna try that, get Firefox. More secure, and clears private data easily.

http://fileforum.betanews.com/detail/…

you can download a free spybot search and destroy here,spyware can slow up your computer.
plus if you go into your control panel then preformance and maintanance,then click free up space on your hard disk,then select disk c,this will get rid of alot of cookies you have accumulated. plus a good virus protection software and adaware program is good to have,i use adaware se plus and panda virus protection.

I’m with Oldfart… all of these work well

Please take no offence to this post. I put this on most computer posts until it can be added to the help bot.

People asking for Computer help please read.

To be able to help you we need to have more detail than “there was an error and now the computer does not start”

with that information there is no way that we can help.
here is a list of information that if you send along then we can help better.
-what operating system(what windows ie: xp, vista, 98, etc.)
-desktop or laptop.
-make and model
-any error messages exactly as they were displayed.
-any odd noises, or smells that have ocoured since the problem.
-let us know if you have installed any new hardware or software since the problem.

By posting this information the first time round we don’t have to ask and can resolve the issue faster.

Basicly we need more info in most cases.
just something to keep in mind.

Norton, AVG , Avast are free antivirus software. Ad-aware, Ewido are free spyware removers. You can download free softwares at http://fixit.in/antivirus.html and http://fixit.in/spywareremover.html

To keep my new computer in good shape, I’ve always used SystemMechanic from Iolo Technologies. The latest version, SystemMechanic7 is available. You can buy it online or at your local computer store. I think Walmart might have it too, in their electronics department.

When I first put SystemMechanic in my computer, it let me know whether my computer was secure and in good condition. It fixed the registry problems and everything else and keeps it tuned up. Saves me having to visit the computer repair shop. Infact, it was a computer technician who recommended it to me.

:)

To answer your question you need to understand why we defrag a hard disk. As you add data to your hard disk your system writes your data to an unused cluster. Some clusters contain from 512 bytes to 2048 bytes of data. If the file you are writing to disk is more than a cluster can hold the system continues by filling the next random cluster and links them together. Now your disk is read like an old record player. The drive head reads your data as the disk goes by. If the data is scattered in different parts of the disk the system must make successive reads to gather all of the data. Since it takes a few milliseconds to reposition the hard drive head to another track it begins to slow the data retrieval. To get around this problem we run the defrag routine. This routine reads the fragmented file and selects a group of clusters in sequential order and rewrites the file. This way the hard drive head dose not need to be repositioned and can read each cluster in sequence. So basically if you’re not bothered by a slower system you don’t need to defrag. However, the time to defrag is directly proportional to the number of fragmented files, so the longer you wait to defrag the longer it will take to defrag your system. If I do a lot of work on the Internet I will generally clean up the Internet cash, history, recycle bin and resent files set to defrag and go to bed.

The other poster is correct. I don’t believe Unix or Linux has this capability but, I’ve been away for about ten years…

ccleaner for clearing cookies and what not and jkdefrag for defragmentation. go with the stuff neku posted and its all good…=]