Speed Up My Computer

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compdict

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So I've had this computer for about a year now, and I think it's being bogged down by some malicious programs or stuff. I haven't really cleaned it because I'm not sure what the best programs to remove the stuff are.

I know that Spybot is okay, Adaware is okay, and HiJack This is also good, but what else could I use to clean my system? Like defrag it or something?

Basically I'm looking for any and all suggestions as to how to speed my computer's performance up, as well as clean it.
 
after you clean any malware...

if you use Windows, you need Perfect Disc defrag utility. Unlike any others that I'm aware of, it defrags the file tables, metadata and such, making it like a new install again

Also recommend you manage your start up applications and block anything you don't need from starting up with your computer.

You can download tweakguides for XP or Vista. They have a good .pdf guide on making things faster too
 
Do the normal clean up stuff with normal apps, nothing fancy. Delete files you don't use any more then run the MS defrag. Make sure you don't have spyware or any virus. See if there are programs running that don't need to be and make them not auto start with windows (run, msconfig). Double check your device settings for IDE drives that they are running in DMA mode and not PIO (my computer properties, device manager). CD read errors can cause Windows to default your drive to run in the slower PIO mode.

Do a backup of your files in case you mess up on the next stuff. Do some registry pruning with a program. If you make a mistake you can always reinstall! :D
At least it will be clean and fast...
 
sea said:
JkDefrag is a very good alternative to PerfectDisk, not to mention free. It's not quite as good, but honestly I doubt you'll be able to notice the difference at all. PerfectDisk also relies on annoying services that you have to have enabled for it to work.
Click to expand...


I'm not sure what you mean by annoying services, can you explain? I don't have that.

If I open task manager I've got something called PDAgent.exe (perfect disk) that uses 0% CPU and holds 904K of memory

Even just installing your OS leaves files everywhere. Defragging is greatly under-valued by most people



Perfect Disc 2008 is not free, but it is shareware. Try it for yourself.

The list of features is really long, but here is just a couple features that I think makes it sweet

# Minimal Free Space Requirement
Raxco Software pioneered defragmentation of the largest drives with minimal free space - as little as 1% free space on a drive is required to defragment it with PerfectDisk 2008.

# Complete NTFS Metadata File Defragmentation
Because only PerfectDisk 2008 defragments all metadata, the result is a drive that is completely defragmented. Other defragmenters do not defragment all of the NTFS metadata and even more alarming, do not report on the files they leave fragmented. And PerfectDisk also provides complete fragmentation statistics for all files. You get the complete picture of the state of your drive. With other defragmenters, since you don't have statistics on all files, you're only seeing part of the picture.

# Optimized Master File Table (MFT) Placement
PerfectDisk 2008 provides a 5%-10% performance improvement over typical defragmenters because of where PerfectDisk 8 places the MFT. Microsoft has specific guidelines for placement of the MFT for this improved performance, and only PerfectDisk follows these guidelines.

# Defragments directories, pagefile and hibernate file
No file or directory is left fragmented with PerfectDisk 2008, so you'll have better performance. No other defragmenter defragments the hibernate file.
Click to expand...

anyway you can download the evaluation copy here

http://www.raxco.com/home_office/home_perfectdisk_professional.cfm
 
Yeah, I don't want anything unnecessary running either, and on that note - I'm not even sure what it is that is doing in the background ... hmm I'll have to ... read the FAQ or somethin. But the performance increase greatly outweighs the insignificant RAM usage.


anyway, to the OP, just get it done with whatever you can
 
If your computer is "bogged down by some malicious programs or stuff" and you don't really know how you go about removing this type of thing do yourself a favor and just reformat your computer. If you are on vista a reformat is farily easy as windows update will go back and install most drivers for you as long as you aren't using some obscure hardware. You just have to make sure all your data is backed up.

If you know what you are doing I love adaware for detection:

http://www.lavasoft.de

Also search for hijack this which will help you clean off any malicious programs on your system.
 
A defrag isn't going to do anything if your computer is suffering from malware which seems to be the case here.

Let's be honest for a second, have any of you actually seen a significant speed increase after doing a defrag? The only time that this has worked for me was on a machine years back when I deleted over 2GB of IE cache, which at the time was more than 15% of my diskspace. After doing that a defrag did speed things up a fair bit. But that's the only case I can recall of a defrag doing anything significant.

Actually I don't know if this is worth any thing any more, looks like the OP got banned for something :P. Looks like he might have been a spam bot.
 
sea said:
It does make a noticeable difference, especially on start-up... but only if it's been a while since you've last defragmented. I usually run a defrag about once a month or after uninstalling/installing a large program, so I never really find my system running slower than it should be.

And uh, he never actually mentioned if malware was his problem. He has yet to respond, but it doesn't sound like he's having issues with it.
Click to expand...

But NTFS is designed for you to not have to defrag the file system except on rare occasions. I think any noticed speed difference is psychological, and until I see some actual benchmarks you probably aren't going to be changing my mind on this :).
 
I use perfect disk and it does keep HD access on my PC to a minimum.
Due to having a noisy hard drive i really noticed it when anything accessed it, opening anything would result with massive noise. After using Perfect Disk its a lot quieter and i hardly hear it now and i can swear it has sped up my system.
 
Whoa what!!. The default Vista defrag is the best, i want a second opinion cause i was told it was useless. So according to that, Auslogic defrag and Diskeeper slows down your PC. Something seems wrong.
 
Is that saying Vista's defrag was better than all those third party apps? And that Diskpeeper and Auslogic both made it have a slower startup?


EDIT: Bah! Beaten to it.
 
Asus said:
One reason you should defrag once a month is because it helps your drives last longer. The drives don't have to read/write from the far side of the disk to the inner part back and forth as much.

This article shows some simple benchmark scores of a fragmented PC and then defragmented with a few different apps.

Vista startup time (sec):
Fragmented drive - 172
Vista Defrag - 133
Diskeeper - 186
PerfectDisk - 170
Auslogic defrag - 176

Also had PCmark and OS shutdown benchmarked.
Click to expand...

I'll have to look at how they took those benchmark numbers later but those numbers are insane.

Doesn't vista defrag run in the background at all times? This would explain the fact that it actually works while the others don't.
 
The difference may be accounted for if different defrag apps put files in different places. The edge of the disk, the middle of the disk etc. If the volume is always 100% defragged (waste of time and wear and tear on the drive to keep it that way) then the edge is probably best since it spins quickest there. Although I thought I read that windows (not sure if it was XP or Vista) puts files closer to the middle so that any seek from there to where new files are (inner or outer edges) takes the least time (least distance for the drive's arm to move).
 
Defrag

I don't buy those numbers from maximum PC, it is not in line with my experience. I've never used a stopwatch to test startup and shutdown times (which are affected by factors apart from fragmentation too), but running Diskeeper 2008 Pro on my vista laptop has definitely increased it's overall responsiveness and file access speeds. Unlike the Vista defragger which kicks in once a week, Diskeeper monitors and handles fragmentation as it arises, and it defrags much faster than Vista's own. On XP, it's not even comparable....the XP defragger is so antiquated and crippled...:E
 
Asus said:
The difference may be accounted for if different defrag apps put files in different places. The edge of the disk, the middle of the disk etc. If the volume is always 100% defragged (waste of time and wear and tear on the drive to keep it that way) then the edge is probably best since it spins quickest there. Although I thought I read that windows (not sure if it was XP or Vista) puts files closer to the middle so that any seek from there to where new files are (inner or outer edges) takes the least time (least distance for the drive's arm to move).
Click to expand...


I don't think a defragger or NTFS can place files at will on a specific physical location on the disk. IIRC, on modern drives, physical file placment is completely a function of the drive controller, and nothing to do with NTFS/XYZ application. It can place files on the logical 'platter' but not on the physical platter. The physical and logical locations may, but need not match.

If anyone has information to the contrary, please do post it here. It would be very useful to know.:)
 
It's odd that I really have not seen any other review showing performance after a defrag.

I know there is the table on the drive (top?) which tells the OS specifically on the drive where the files are held. Is the table what you mean by logical file placement? I still think the OS can have control of where a file physically goes by accessing the file table. I would think the drive just knows how to move the head and retrieve the data but not where without instructions. The drive doesn't know if you are using NTFS, FAT or Mac's file system. And if the drive doesn't know what file system you are using then it couldn't know how to modify the table for reference where the file is actually located. Just the OS would.

Throughout this review he sometimes mentions specifics about how each defrag program organizes the data or leaves a spot free. I can't imagine they would be talking about anything but the physical drive since it would make no sense doing these kinds of things if you couldn't control exactly where on the drive.
 
Stonewall said:
I don't think a defragger or NTFS can place files at will on a specific physical location on the disk. IIRC, on modern drives, physical file placment is completely a function of the drive controller, and nothing to do with NTFS/XYZ application. It can place files on the logical 'platter' but not on the physical platter. The physical and logical locations may, but need not match.

If anyone has information to the contrary, please do post it here. It would be very useful to know.:)
Click to expand...

But the entire point of a disk defragment is to move files on the physical disk. So I really don't know what point there would be in even having disk defragment if it didn't do anything.
 
Finallyfast.com!

My computer is fast! Finally!

FINALLY FAST DOT COM!


lol... don't go there. I hate that commercial.
 
I use PerfectDisk, its better than the rest. Keeps my system boot in a second and a half (00:01.1/2) If you don't know what I mean. And you have 30 days to get your defragging done. End of story.

Ps. Don't forget to defrag your system, root, registry and boot files. It'll make a whole lots of difference.

Good Luck.
 
I've been using Diskeeper and one of the reasons I like it is because the auto defrag feature is unobtrusive. You can also turn off the background defrag feature if you wish.
 
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