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Worried about impending crash

13 years ago

Computer is 4 yr old Compaq Presario 180 HD, 512 memory, Windows XP Home OS. Lately it has been locking up and twice wouldn't shut down. I pulled the plug and restarted using F8. I ran a Malwarebytes scan and also ran C Cleaner, nothing untoward showed up. I also did a disc cleanup, and defrag, when I was starting the defrag I got a message that I had only 14% free space on the D drive and 15% free space was needed to defrag. The C drive has 80% free space. I have my pictures and music files backed up on a DVD but would hate to lose a lot of my other files. I saw a Click Free external hard drive demoed and was impressed, easy to used compared to other external hard drives which I've heard are complicated. I was wondering tho, if I back up my whole machine on the Click Free then later install the files on another computer, will I be transferring a virus, if one is present on my current machime. Also was wondering about the ability to transfer the whole computer from an XP os to Windows Vista or 7, since they would probably be the OS on a new machine. Hope I was clear enough. Sorry if I was not. TIA for any help anyone can provide.

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Comments (6)

ravencajun Zone 8b TX
13 years ago
it is likely having the problems you mention due to such low RAM memory on it, you could benefit greatly from adding more RAM to it and that is very easy to do and not very expensive.

D drive is where they store your recover partition so that area does not need to be defragged or messed with at all. When you set it to do those task only have it do it to C drive.

virus and trojans can be moved from one pc to another on an infected file which is why it is very important to always scan all files well with AV programs and malwarebytes.

If you mean can you transfer all of the files you want to save from a windows xp computer to a new one with windows 7 yes you can.

Most external hard drives are not difficult to use it is simply a matter of dragging and dropping of files from the pc to the hard drive.
mare_wbpa
Original Author
13 years ago
Thanks for the help Raven. I'll look into getting more memory.
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jane__ny
13 years ago
I love Click-free. Have 3 of them and they are truly easy to use. Easier than any other external I've used. Worth the price.

I agree with Raven, add some memory.

Jane
mike_kaiser_gw
13 years ago
Lately it has been locking up and twice wouldn't shut down.

There's lots of things that can cause those kinds of problems and usually aren't viruses or other malware. Put simply, over time Windows accumulates garbage that reduces performance. While you can try to clean everything up, sometimes it's better to simply start over. The unfortunate part is that it's a time consuming exercise because you have to get 4 years worth of updates. Although if you do invest the time you will likely be pleasantly surprised by how fast your computer is again.

As others have suggested a little more memory wouldn't hurt. Crucial has a nice website that allows you to plug in your manufacturer and model number and it will tell you exactly what memory your computer needs and how much of it you can install.
owbist
13 years ago
Mike K notes:- The unfortunate part is that it's a time consuming exercise because you have to get 4 years worth of updates.

I just did a full recovery on an XP computer, 129 updates and patches but all except being asked if you want IE8 require no user input.
mare_wbpa
Original Author
13 years ago
Thank you to everyone who replied to my post. I know that I can always get good advice when I come here. I haven't installed more memory yet, but will update when I do. Thanks again.

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