In a Slow Motion

Hi, if you want a cheap upgrade you should double the ram (at least to 512mb) and change your hard disk with a bigger one (sure it will be faster too). As for viruses, you should install an antivirus like AVG Free, for me it's the fastest free AV. Your pc will breathe again

It is very unlikely that reformatting would slow down a computer - in fact, it should do the reverse. If you only have 256Mb RAM, you will certainly find it beneficial to upgrade to the largest amount your motherboard and the operating system can accept. This is likely to be 1 or 2Gb for a computer of that age (at least four times the amount you have already!) Messages about "Low Disk Space" relate to something quite different: the size of the hard disk and the amount of it which is in use (files stored on it). Certainly part of the trouble is likely to be that, with such a small amount of RAM, almost any program which runs will be using an area of the hard disk as 'virtual RAM'. This means that, when a program is running, it needs to load many things into RAM in order to use them, just like you might need several books open on your desk if you were writing an article. When there is already so little RAM, an area of the hard disk is set aside so that programs can 'put away' material they are not using at that moment. That will slow down things dramatically because writing to the hard disk (and reading from it) is MUCH slower than having the information available in RAM! If the hard disk is more than about 75% full, it is likely to have parts of files stored in different places on the disk. This is called 'fragmentation' and that also slows down the computer because it takes longer for it to find, read and put together the different parts of the file when it is needed.

To be honest, I am not going to encourage you to place much hope on this old computer for a few reasons. 1. Obsolete problems I believe you will not be able to do much with a 5 year old hardware where the CPU motherboard may not be able to upgrade further to the current basic requirement to operate the latest Windows OS. I don't even know if it is going to be cheap since the RAM could already discontinued. Even if you were to get reconditioned RAM in the stock yards I doubt they could be reliable and don't forget the maximum RAM your CPU motherboard can take. On this note, the maximum hard disk will also be limited here. You need to think about your graphics card too. In short, don't waste your time if your motherboard cannot accommodate: 2GB RAM/500GB HDD. You may want to check the motherboard manual or its official website for this information. In the software department, I believe your machine if it does miraculously got the hardware, will have to be fired up with the latest firmware for your motherboard to take on the new hardware and configurations before you can install your new OS. Now, don't be too happy when you've passed this stage because you will be installing your new OS which I believe is going to be Windows XP which you are currently going to use which I do not know if you are aware is going to be discontinued by Microsoft (MS) next year. This would mean that you will need to visit the stock yard for this program disc to install your OS. After that, you will have to go through some endless period of tweaks, fix and patch. Not forgetting, reinstalling your needed software for the computer. On the underlined, I believe that is the minimum requirement for installing the Windows 7 OS. Please note that it is the minimum and if you want security and play some interactive games you will need at least 4GB to 8GB of RAM. 2. Impractical I believe that I have said enough above to prove to you that it would be practical for you to go through all that trouble with your old machine. Sentimentality aside but I think you have enough frustrations already and I feel that you should not prolong your suffering any further. If it be of help, you can consider stripping it up and sell off certain valuable parts like the RAM or HDD to the stock yard. I feel that it is about time you consider getting a new workstation or laptop already. If you cannot afford a new one, you can always look for a secondhand with the latest OS and config. Take your time and consider the options.

Gøod to hear about your computer. I think you must delete the unwanted files from your computer. I think your system is filled with lot of garbage files, so only you are getting this message. If you delete the unwanted things from your system you are free from this problem.

It has 256MB of memory? I would buy Norton antivirus or kaspersky antivirus. That should help but, if you only have 256 MB of ram i would defiantly go with the ram. It might even be smart to buy a new computer. Even with all the information if you have a staples in your area they will switch all of your data to windows 8. Or you could be a really cheap computer that has 2 GB of ram. Taking that out and put it in your computer and then, sell the cheap one that you bought. The other thing that helps the ram is the processor you might want to balance it out. Like buy a cheap memory system and a cheap processor. If your computer is 2008 and you do buy a memory system you might have the problem of having the processor not begin able to handle that much memory.