laptop housekeeping - not very interesting
Apr. 6th, 2009 03:32 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
baratronYarg. On the basis that my computer has become unusably slow, I'm trying to clean it up. 2.52 GB free on D: and a mere 0.99 GB free on C: might go some way towards explaining the lag. The cleaning process is itself laboriously slow and involves a number of steps. I'm clearing off a load of crap, backing up everything that I care about to our storage box (called Earth, because that's where we keep our stuff), and eventually will defragment my hard drive, each partition separately.
First, I have to figure out what the crap is. I've acquired a huge amount of dubious software lately, and I don't know why. I think it all came on the "free" CD with my digital voice recorder. Some of it is essential - others, less so. Then, I have to fight with my obsessive hoarding tendencies (which are genetic). I've spent the night on irc saying things like "someone please tell me that I don't need Sims 2 neighbourhood backups from 2006". And I apparently have 4.84 GB of Sims 2 custom content that I downloaded but haven't got round to installing! Seems like I continued to compulsively download stuff even after I was bored with playing the game. Ye gods. Then, I have to decide whether I'm keeping it or not, and if so, where I'm keeping it. It is debatable whether I need all the original .zip or .rar files for Sims 2 and other downloads, but it's definitely true that, except for the most important programs, I don't need to carry them around on the laptop.
I've also discovered that my AVG antivirus program somehow got broken or corrupted, and hasn't been checking the hard drive at regular intervals like it should. Having fixed it the hard way (*complete* uninstall, delete and reinstall - then booting up avgui.exe manually), I have downloaded all the updates and have it scanning for spyware and viruses. Various people have recommended other antivirus/antispyware programs, which I will look into once the computer's running at a sensible speed again.
This is so boring, and I want to go to bed. At least, I will as soon as everything's on the network drive. Then I can set defrag running overnight.
First, I have to figure out what the crap is. I've acquired a huge amount of dubious software lately, and I don't know why. I think it all came on the "free" CD with my digital voice recorder. Some of it is essential - others, less so. Then, I have to fight with my obsessive hoarding tendencies (which are genetic). I've spent the night on irc saying things like "someone please tell me that I don't need Sims 2 neighbourhood backups from 2006". And I apparently have 4.84 GB of Sims 2 custom content that I downloaded but haven't got round to installing! Seems like I continued to compulsively download stuff even after I was bored with playing the game. Ye gods. Then, I have to decide whether I'm keeping it or not, and if so, where I'm keeping it. It is debatable whether I need all the original .zip or .rar files for Sims 2 and other downloads, but it's definitely true that, except for the most important programs, I don't need to carry them around on the laptop.
I've also discovered that my AVG antivirus program somehow got broken or corrupted, and hasn't been checking the hard drive at regular intervals like it should. Having fixed it the hard way (*complete* uninstall, delete and reinstall - then booting up avgui.exe manually), I have downloaded all the updates and have it scanning for spyware and viruses. Various people have recommended other antivirus/antispyware programs, which I will look into once the computer's running at a sensible speed again.
This is so boring, and I want to go to bed. At least, I will as soon as everything's on the network drive. Then I can set defrag running overnight.
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no subject
Date: 2009-04-06 10:40 am (UTC)the hatter(no subject)
From:no subject
Date: 2009-04-06 10:52 am (UTC)option 1 work on your need to hoard (issues around safety etc)
option 2 spend 20p on burning a DVD of sim2 downloads. Store disc in spindle pack for a 10 years, then either throw it away or reupload it to (new) earth who by that time will have exabytes of storage
that way you "kept it available"
(no subject)
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