speeding up laptop

sparkydude · Post by **sparkydude** » Wed Dec 23, 2009 5:37 pm

Hi all just after some advice with my laptop.

After having it for some two years its a bit cluttered to say the least.
I have emptied the downloaded files (music and youtube clips, NOT PORN LOL
(ok just a couple LOL

)

and now the memory looks better but still have one drive that is nearing full capacity its called HP_Recovery and has 770MB of 7.08GB left. I think this is slowing it down to the point of nearly stopping. Whats the best way of clearing this up and ultimateley speeding the computer up??

Any help appreciated

Nick

RichieP · Post by **RichieP** » Wed Dec 23, 2009 6:20 pm

That's not another drive. Your hard drive is split (partitioned) into two.

The partition you describe is the recovery partition. It is accessed by pressing a certain key as your computer starts up (usually F10 on an HP).

This launches the recovery program to reinstall Windows back to its factory state.

Don't delete anything from there or you won't be able to recover, should you ever need to.

sparkydude · Post by **sparkydude** » Wed Dec 23, 2009 6:41 pm

Kind of guessed i could not delete it, but how can i speed the laptop up? Would adding some more plug in RAM help at all, it has 1GB currently but will accept upto 2GB? Or if not how can i best speed it up .

Nick

RichieP · Post by **RichieP** » Thu Dec 24, 2009 7:54 pm

More RAM always helps. You haven't said what operating system you have. 1GB is plenty for XP, nowhere enough for Vista.

sparkydude · Post by **sparkydude** » Thu Dec 24, 2009 8:42 pm

yes its running windows vista basic . So adding more RAM will help speed it up. if as you say the HP Recovery is a partition , what happens when this is full as its nearing that now??? does the partition need enlarging somehow to accomodate this or are there things stored in it that really are not needed anymore and are just taking up space??

Nick

dave.m · Post by **dave.m** » Thu Dec 24, 2009 9:28 pm

Nick,

The recovery partition should not be getting any fuller than when it was first made by the computer manufacturer as nothing should be saved to it.
If you open My Computer and it is visible, what drive letter does it display, usually D: or E:, but could be any letter.

The easiest way is to hide it so that nothing can be directed to be stored on it.

You can simply go into Disk Management (start, run, diskmgmt.msc) and right click on the partition. Remove the drive letter from the partition, it will disappear from My Computer. It'll still be available for a restore if necessary, it just won't appear in My Computer.

Before you do that, I suggest you also create the recovery disks, if you have not already done so, since if you ever have a total disk crash, you'll have no recovery method.

dave

sparkydude · Post by **sparkydude** » Mon Dec 28, 2009 11:13 am

Thanks for your help everyone, just another quickie, how do i create recovery discs and what discs are needed to write these files onto.

Once recovery discs have been created then can the recovery partition be cleaned out? or will just making it so nothing can be written to it help to speed it up.

Nick

dave.m · Post by **dave.m** » Mon Dec 28, 2009 12:26 pm

http://www.pctechbytes.com/2009/08/01/h ... -creation/

You will be as well using DVD+R as they hold more and if there is almost 7GB on the recovery patition, you will probably need two DVD disks.

The recovery partition is designed to hold just the info that is required to recover your system in an emergency, that is why it is that size.

Does the recovery partition have a letter like the other drives and pertitions, eg. C:\ D:\ etc. Usually it should be hidden so that nothing can be written to it or deleted from it.

No matter how full it is, it is not effecting the speed of your computer because your computer is not looking for information on it. When the laptop wants info such as from one of your My Documents folders, it knows they are stored on the C:\ drive so that is the only place it looks for it.

In Ccleaner -> Tools -> Uninstall is a list of all the programs that are installed. Have a good look through the list and uninstall any programs that you do not use any more. They may have been there from new but never used. Things like the 90 day Norton trial that you probably never activated or the 60 day Office 2007 trial. If they have expired and you are not using the full version, get rid.

Then run the Registry and cleaner in Ccleaner. Finally run a defrag on the drive.

dave

sparkydude · Post by **sparkydude** » Mon Dec 28, 2009 2:02 pm

Yes the drive has got a letter attached to it, and it seems it might be writing information to it then . How do i make the recovery disk then, just copy and paste it to a dvd ? then if so what do i do with thfile i have copied?? Sorry for being such a newb but PCs are not my forte LoL

dave.m · Post by **dave.m** » Mon Dec 28, 2009 2:22 pm

To begin, click Start, then All Programs. If you have an HP Pavilion click Hewlett-Packard and then HP PC Recovery CD Creator. If not, try clicking PC Help & Tools, then HP CD Recovery CD-DVD Creator to start the program.

You will see a welcome screen. Click the Continue button on each screen to start the disc creator. You will see how many disks are necessary to create the HP recovery disks. Label them, so you do not get confused after each burn.

The disk will burn, verify data, then eject each CD when complete. When the process is complete, you should have a working set of HP restore disks.

You will not be able to create another set, so if you lose or damage these disks, you’ll need to contact HP for a replacement.

As for the partition, what letter does it have? Open My Computer and double click it and see what is on the drive.
If you can make a list of the folders and post it here to see what they are.

Make your recovery disk before deciding what to do with the folders on the recovery partition.

dave

lockie · Post by **lockie** » Mon Dec 28, 2009 4:55 pm

A common problem for pcs slowing down is the amount of programs starting up in the background.Stop loads of the ones you dont use starting up and it will speed it up no end without formatting etc.

run-msconfig and go to selective start up.Untick the boxes of the programs you dont need running.

dave.m · Post by **dave.m** » Mon Dec 28, 2009 6:16 pm

Just a follow up from Lockie's post, Ccleaner has a list of all items that run at Startup and they can be stopped from running using Ccleaner.

All that should be running in a startup list is your security programs such as firewall, antivirus, realtime antispyware Winpatrol or other and your wireless connection.

Any item in the startup list that you are unsure about, run a search here:
http://www.sysinfo.org/startuplist.php?filter=&letter=A
and see what they say should or should not be running.
dave

Mozzy Jones · Post by **Mozzy Jones** » Mon Dec 28, 2009 6:56 pm

Was going to say that Dave was yer man to sort this one out fer e. He got ere first though

Mozzy