1 Laptop with 2 Local Disk Drives

[the_kid_a]

Hi There,

Recently, I have been starting to find that my Samsung NC10 laptop has been running slowly. It takes longer to boot up once I turn it on, and I also find that web browsing and youtube are taking longer to load also.

I have not installed anything new to it, and I don't really keep much music or films on it.
I use a web browser called Flock on Windows XP, making sure I delete my cookies, internet history and internet files.
I have also ran up to date virus and spyware checks using AVG 2011, but nothing is found.

Is there anything else for me to check??

If I go to My Computer, it shows I have 2 Local Disks, (C;) and (D;).
(C:) has 30.4GB free out of 71GB.
(D;) has 69.7GB free out of 71.9GB.

Obviously I am not using (D;) as much as (C:).
Can I transfer some of Programs and My Documents over to (D:)?? If I do this, will I have reinstall all the programs found in the Start menu and will I need to redirect all my shortcuts and icons for My Documents, My Music, My Videos, etc??
Will this solve my problem of slow performance, or is there another way to deal with it?? If it should solve my problem, is it just a simple case of cutting and pasting from the (C;) to (D;) withing My Computer?

Thank you very much for any help.


Microsoft Windows XP
Home Edition
Version 2002
Service Pack 3

Intel(R) Atom (TM)
CPU N270 @ 1.60GHz
1.60GHz, 1.99 GB of RAM

[AlBags]

Move your "My Documents" complete for a start.
R Click My Docs folder .. Move .. Browse to drive .. and transfer files too. It may take a while. After this Mt Docs will work normally, but just be on another drive.
Do not attempt to move ANY program to another drive.This will not work, with the exception of a few programs that do not use an installer, and are completely stand-alone, running only in their own folder.
That's a good start. When done .. defrag the drives.
There are a few things you can do in XP to speed things up ..
Back later to tell you a few.
Al.

[AlBags]

* (R Click My Docs/Properties/Move ... etc)

[VHG]

You have loads of room on the C drive (over 30Gb) so moving stuff from C to D is not going to speed your computer up.

This only thing related to hard disks that will slow your computer down is if a disk is nearly full, and that does not apply in your case.

DONT even think about moving programs anyway, leave them all on C.

You can move My Documents etc if you wish but I dont think you will gain any performance improvement.

[VHG]

If it is mainly the internet that is running slowly then do a broadband speed check and see what speed you are getting (and if it is what you pay for). Dont run it just once, run it on different days and at different times to see if the speed varies. Make a note of the speed you get each time.

If it is taking a time to start up then you need to check what programs are starting up when the computer starts up. You may find you have a few programs starting up that you dont need. The less that starts up when the computer starts the faster it should go overall.

I would run some other anti malware programs to double check you dont have any malware or spyware on your PC. Like malwarebytes. You probably dont have any, but best to check.

Note that an Intel Atom is rather a low powered CPU so I dont think you are ever going to get lightening performacen