Making An Old Computer New

IMG_20140308_235230-w800-h600If it seems like computers get slower over time, you’re right. It’s not because they’re wearing out. It’s because we’re inadvertently adding little helper programs every time we install something new. These are the programs that check to see if your software needs updating or get large applications started faster.

All of this happens at the expense of your computer’s performance.

No matter how hard I try to avoid these little vampires, they accumulate. After a while, a fast computer becomes a slow computer.

That’s the story with this Windows 7 laptop I’m typing on. Photo editing became a painful experience. Other chores too.

The disk light was constantly flashing, a sign I’d used all 4Gb RAM and was manipulating data on the much slower hard drive.

This afternoon I pulled off the data and moved it to an external drive. Next, three DVDs with the restore software had to be burned. Then, with the first disk in the drive I hit the power button.

This is not for the faint of heart. The laptop is returned to its original factory state. Everything has to be reinstalled. Passwords must be remembered.

It will take most of the week before this machine has everything it needs. I have all the disks. It’s just the time.

Right now I’m downloading 500Mb of Windows 7 updates! The computer seems a lot peppier. It would be nice if my effort made a difference.

4 thoughts on “Making An Old Computer New”

  1. I move stuff from my hdd over to my external hdd all the time. For that reason, my computer rarely slows down. My major complaint is the adobe flash programs that are added to websites. They add so much stuff to a site, I wonder if the page will ever load.

  2. I’ll be curious as to how this works out for you. So what might cause an IPod to slow down if only half the memory is used? A similar scenario perhaps?

  3. I have found that to be the case with my latest phone as well, Geoff (it’s an older model Motorola Razr). I started have some strange connect and other issues, so I said – time to reinit the phone. And it seems to have done some good.

  4. Not sure the exact specs of your laptop, but consider upgrading to a solid state drive (SSD). Sure they are smaller, but 120Gig or 240Gig generally fit the bill for stuff I’m working on. If i need more storage for older stuff, I’ll get an external hard drive. I recently put one in a macbook pro purchased in 2006. In put new life into an older machine and is quite peppy now! As long as your laptop uses a 2.5″ hard drive and SATA, you should be good to go.

    I recommend the crucial m500 line, the samsung 830 line, and the samsung 840 pro line. Everything else will work, but there are a series of performance and longevity tradeoffs…in my opinion.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *