Axe Posted November 7, 2007 Report Share Posted November 7, 2007 Does anyone actually defragment thier hard drive/s on a regular basis? I have been having many problems with my Internet Security software from BT whom have been trying to repair it or some months. This has resulted in multiple installs and uninstalls of software and registry components. Over this period my, fairly powerful 8 month old PC has been taking longer and longer to boot up. Infact its got to a stage where I am off to make a cuppa whilst it boots up. This wasnt so ba until the Security Pack decided to strart booting from the internet on a regular occourance, resulting in a need to reboot. So rang BT again and got put through to the back office team (the bods in the know). After about an hour on the phone we had completely removed all instrances of BT and any changes and reinstalled a clean up to date version. On reboot however, the same problem existed, too slow. He asked me to perform a Defragment of both my hard drives and damn, my PC is back to rebootng in just 15-20 seconds again. So from now on, i'll be running a bi-weekly schedule of defrags. Anyone else noticed performance increase after a defrag? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
al4x Posted November 7, 2007 Report Share Posted November 7, 2007 It definitely helps, I tend to do mine once a fortnight or so. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bradders Posted November 7, 2007 Report Share Posted November 7, 2007 I do regular defrags and more importantly backups to an external hard drive (that goes in my safe). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robbsy Posted November 7, 2007 Report Share Posted November 7, 2007 Yes regularly about once a fortnight and also delete internet files and cookies as this also clogs everything up Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cranfield Posted November 7, 2007 Report Share Posted November 7, 2007 I use IE privacy Keeper (you can also use it with Firefox) and it cleans up everything when I turn my PC off. If I go to Disc defrag, I always get the message "insufficient to de-frag". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hardy Posted November 7, 2007 Report Share Posted November 7, 2007 I rarely bother defragging hard drives - it used to more of an issue than it is today. On the other hand I've recently become aware of all the junk that BT seem to think you need in order to be able to access thier internet. One of my collegues has just switched to BT & folled the instructions, inserted the CD & his PC ground to a halt. Next day he brought it in & I stripped off all the junk that it had loaded - there is NOTHING on thier CD that you actually need to gain your connection. If your using a wireless hub your pc should auto detect the connection & them only thing you need is the security code. This will be in the paperwork that came with it or (poss) on a sticker on the hub itself. If its a wired broadband connection you'll need to add your user ID & password to the network connection. If its dialup I think it insists on using a bit of software when you first connect - long time since i used a dialup connection! In terms of the security packages - theres far better stuff avaiable for free. If your hardware doesn't have a built in firewall, windows XP/Vista does. For antivirus AVG is free & has been proven better at detecting infections than many of the purchased versions & has less of a system overhead. For malware protection, Spybot Search & Destroy is very good & free. Going off subject a bit theres a whole raft of free software avaiable out there which is very good, I've a whole list if anyone's interested. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Axe Posted November 7, 2007 Author Report Share Posted November 7, 2007 Hardy, I should have mentioned its a business connection and completely different to home accounts. There is no additional softwere loaded with the set up. I cant vouch for how effective the actual security pack is othr than to say its caught everything that needs catching so far. I'm going along the lines that the defrag has put an essential file back in order. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dunkield Posted November 7, 2007 Report Share Posted November 7, 2007 I am quite keen on good housekeeping on my pc's. I do a bit of a sweep with ccleaner and then a defrag if it looks like it needs it. The 'main' PC is ghosted to a spare disk every week or so as it has all my pictures and old business files on it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Enzo Posted November 7, 2007 Report Share Posted November 7, 2007 Disc cleanup and defrag every 2 weeks. Only to cut down on 'junk' being filed on the laptop. That's the trouble with porn sites............... Enzo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Axe Posted November 7, 2007 Author Report Share Posted November 7, 2007 Well its a big up for BT I have to say. Turns out it wasnt the Security Pack directly causing the problems. It was infact a problem caused by the Windows Automatic Upadtes or rather the Windows Automatic Don't Updates. They got me to go to http://update.mirosoft.com were it scanned the PC for updates. Well after half an hour and no ess than 7 critical and 15 non-critical upadtes, im up and running! Damned Microsoft and its junk software again!!! grrr. At least they were kind enough to tell me Ihave 3 updates for other manufactured equipment on my PC, which is something at least. One thing I have learned, include a bi-monthly update check along with the defrag. Take heed people. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShaggyRS6 Posted November 7, 2007 Report Share Posted November 7, 2007 (edited) Buy a MAC then you dont have to worry. I pray for the day my Windows Machine at home finally gives up, I can then justify to the wife that I need a Mac Pro as well as my MacBook Pro. After suffering 20 years of Bill Gates ***** its a pleasant relief to use MAC OSX. Sorry, rant over Edited November 7, 2007 by Axe Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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