The stupid Questions are the easiest to answer. I'll probably get alot of bites on this one. Am I correct in assuming Programs and files on the hard drive can be transfered to an external hard drive for storage freeing space on the hard drive and if so will it improve the performance of the computer? And does a program of some kind have to be downloaded in order to start a transfer from original hard drive to the external hard drive?

Howdy,

No special programs for transfer are needed ...but you will have to keep the program files on the main HDD as that is where they were loaded to....its best to keep program files on the main HDD and other files can be moved to the external

Why go external...do you have any room for a internal?

I know even less about an internal HD. I would have to dismantel the tower to install an internal HD correct? I just thought if I removed some things from my hard drive my performance would improve with more available space Would it be better to download a software program that would allow me to put a few items on a cd. I have cable high speed, but everything runs as slow as two turtles trying to run in a bucket of glue and they told me it depended alot on the condition of the computer. So I thought maybe reducing alot of items that are actually just being stored on the hd would improve the speed that I am paying dearly for.

An internal Hard drive would be better and it isn't difficult..just take the side off the tower and plug it in.....

How about telling us some spec on the PC in question...like Hard drive size and how much free space left and how much memory you have...

Have you defrag lately?

Run some scans for melware?

Cleaned your Temp folders out

Use this free utility

ATF Cleaner by Atribune.

Double-click ATF-Cleaner.exe to run the program.
Under Main choose: Select All
Click the Empty Selected button.

If you use Firefox browser
Click Firefox at the top and choose: Select All
Click the Empty Selected button.
NOTE: If you would like to keep your saved passwords, please click No at the prompt.

If you use Opera browser
Click Opera at the top and choose: Select All
Click the Empty Selected button.
NOTE: If you would like to keep your saved passwords, please click No at the prompt.


Click Exit on the Main menu to close the program.

Why would an internal HD be better than an external HD?
because an external drive uses a usb connection and an internal drive would use IDE (in your case) and IDE is generally faster than USB

Why would an internal HD be better than an external HD? I have 384.omb of ram with 41% free. I clean out temp folders regularly. The computer is a Compaq Presario, new in 1998 Malware is a form of spyware correct? My computer won't run a defrag for some reason.I started it three hours ago and it shows a0% progress. It used to show progress when it first started then it would quit and restart, over and over. Now it shows no progress recording at all.What do you think about a software program from VCom that automatically updates drivers?. I downloaded and used the ATF cleaner. Nothing seems to be any different.

bp936. It appears I have 7.46GB capacity with 1.92GB available left. Not a very big HD. Does Maxtor have a web site or can I pick up their external harddrive or are they sold pretty much everywhere?

Try defrag in Safe mode tapping F8 on startup and choosing safe mode

Thanks for the tip bonk. I started up in safe mode, started defrag, had errors on the disk and had to run scandisk and repaired them, then was able to run and complete a defrag of my system and it was really screwed up. Thanks again.