HDD Speeds - Installing/Uninstalling Programs

MeveM

MeveM

Bright Spark
So, got a few queries about HDD's, defrags, installing and uninstalling programs etc.

Up until now, I've never had a PC with a bigger HDD then 300gb. I'll soon be having a 750gb drive.

So what I'd like to know is;

1. Does the HDD speeds, loading etc slow down, the more space is used up?
2. If the space usage does not slow it down, is it better to avoid uninstalling programs, for then to refill those gaps with newly installed programs? If that makes sense.

Basically, I doubt I'll reach 750gb any time soon, so am I better to just keep all the games I install over the years, or uninstall them when they're not used? If I uninstall, should I defrag the disks regularly? And should I use a different program then windows own to "defrag" the disk? Don't know if CCleaner or whatever it's called does it?

I basically want to know what I'm best doing to keep my HHD running quickly without it clogging up with rubbish.
 
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Wozza63

Biblical Poster
you should definetly remove unwanted files and make sure to use a 3rd party defrag program which has an 'optimize' option, which is essential, this should keep it as fast as possible, keeping files closer to the centre (optimize) will speed up access times as its all close together
 
vanthus

vanthus

Member Resting in Peace
In windows7, disk cleanup & disk defragmenter are all you really need to keep your HDD running fine.
Disk defragmenter in windows7 is much improved from previous versions & It's scheduled to run once a week by default I think,though you can change that.
I wouldn't worry about uninstalling programs/games, until your hard disk gets to about 75 to 80% full.
If you really want to use other programs, good free ones are,
for defrag-"Defraggler" or "Auslogics Disk Defrag"
CCleaner is a handy utility as well.
 
Fear

Fear

Prolific Poster
As vanthus has said the inbuilt defrag in windows 7 is all you need, it's all i use and my system is running nice and fast.
 
MeveM

MeveM

Bright Spark
Good good, I've only ever had really rubbish HHD's, so I think this PC is going to be such a massive change of pace from what I'm used to. Trying to get everything sorted for the delivery tomorrow. Got me windows 7 disc ready (Hope I dont have to ring Microsoft to get it sorted, as installed on my current PC, it is a full version I bought by itself from PCworld a year or so ago, since my current pc had vista, and this PC is going straight in the skip.) , got all the games out, and sorting out a list of programs etc to get, just want to make sure I keep it nice and tidy, and keep it tidy so it runs nicely for some time to come.
 
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Wozza63

Biblical Poster
make sure to rip the hard drive out, even if you dont put it in your new one, these days, a format isnt enough, i never throw away hard drives

you could also take some other parts, ie, optical drive, RAM (if its ddr3), fans etc
 
MeveM

MeveM

Bright Spark
It's a PCworld pc... it's rubbish, noone would ever want anything to do with it. CPU is damaged, GPU is damaged, ram is probably damaged, there are no fans since it's as I said, a pcworld case, CD drive is damaged, refuses to work properly after a burning of a disc went wrong for unknown reasons.
 
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Wozza63

Biblical Poster
it should have at least 2 fans, one at the back and one on the CPU cooler, although probably 80mm which are useless
 
MeveM

MeveM

Bright Spark
Only thing I'm keeping is my sound blaster soundcard, which isn't inside the PC to start with, it's a USB soundcard, actually really good, not sure if it's better then what I'm getting with the new motherboard though.
 
Unwina

Unwina

Silver Level Poster
johake said:
Not sure which is better, my USB soundblaster card or the built in one with the Z68
Click to expand...

My bet is on the soundblaster especially if you play music, I have one on my old MESH computer. I think its an old audigy god the special effects options on those are good when you play guitars through them. and the control you have on the effects is amazing.

Not sure if the newer ones have this kind of capability as they tended to move towards gaming and surround sound in games and stuff its 4 years since i bought a new PC and it just had onboard on ot nothing like as good as the SB machine. I've got a full roland mixer and recording system with much better effects on now so never bothered moving the SB card over to the newer machine.

I'm not a games person though so maybe the on boards are better for those htese days.
 
Unwina

Unwina

Silver Level Poster
Not used one like that before but it has got EAX and you can download wave editor.

Probably not usable for plugging ones electric guitar in and playing along with the effects module turned on live.

I don't know much about the on board of the intel so can't really say.

Looks cool a bit like an overgrown creative zen mp3 player. My wife has one of those the battery life is phenomenal. She uses it a lot and keeps forgetting how to charge it up!.
 
tom_gr7

tom_gr7

Life Serving
I think it depends on what you are connecting the sound card to?

I.e 2.1 speaker setup, or a dvd sound system or a digital encoder?
 
Unwina

Unwina

Silver Level Poster
If I remember correctly you can get surround sound out of EAX on a pair of ordinary headphones, we never really used the 5.1 of the Audigy crd that much except for some demos, perhaps things have moved on.

I do remember the surround did seem to work on the headphones though, I'm guessing thats the mixing though.

If LedZep IIs Whole Lotta Love is anything to go by that used to sound like it was swirling around in your head, especially weird in the dark!.

I digressed there sorry.
 
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