Is my computer borked?

[WarLocke]

I figured today would be good for some electronic housekeeping, so I started up Disk Cleanup before jumping in the shower. When I came back an hour later, it was only perhaps 15% along the progress bar, and still "compressing old files."

I let it run for a second hour, but nothing ever seemed to happen. Now, I haven't cleaned up and defragged in awhile, but I still can't see how it would take more than 2 hours... :angry:

[AtomicKitKat]

I haven't been able to defrag my new com since I got it. :( But I think anything over 40GB of space would take at least 2 hours of defragging.

[WarLocke]

Too bad I only have a 20GB drive. <_<

Also, I hadn't even gotten to Defrag yet, I was trying the Disk Cleanup wizard, the thing that goes through and files all the junk files (temporary internet files and stuff) that you can safely delete to free up space. Considering that I can search the whole drive in under 2 minutes, 2 hours to catalogue junk files seems a bit extreme.

[yangman]

Not really: we're talking about Windows here afterall.

The last time I ran Disk Cleanup, it took a ridiculously long time as well. This is considering the fact that I manually maintain my PC by cleaning old files and registry entries.

I don't know what the wizard is doing, but I'd suggest you execute each step manually to avoid it doing something you don't need it to be doing.

[DeeBye]

I figured today would be good for some electronic housekeeping, so I started up Disk Cleanup before jumping in the shower.&nbsp; When I came back an hour later, it was only perhaps 15% along the progress bar, and still "compressing old files."

Did you have the "Compress drive to save disk space" option checked? If so, that's your mistake. I wouldn't touch that option with a ten foot pole. It always seems so buggy to me (like the old MS-DOS equivalent "dblspace").

You should really Defrag at least once a week, ya know :P

edit:
BTW, how fast is your hard drive? My old drive was a woefully snailpaced 16 gig Seagate that took at least 2 hours to Defrag. My new(ish) 7200-RPM Maxtor takes less than ten minutes.

[WarLocke]

Hrmm, nope, just checked and I don't have the compression option checked. Now this is starting to really bug me. :angry:

I don't know offhand how many RPMs my HD can pull. It's about 2 years old, and I would guesstimate it takes 1.5-2 hours to defrag.

I know I should defrag more often, but I just get lazy. I would have done it today (with or without Cleanup working), but I'm in the middle of a very large download, and I don't want to risk it getting corrupted or the patcher fritzing out if the temporary files got moved around. :blink:

[DeeBye]

This might be a stupid question, but what version of Windows are you using?

[WarLocke]

WinXP Home :(

I suxx0rz at the OS...

[DeeBye]

WinXP Home&nbsp; :)

Quote fixed, 'cause that's what I use.

[WarLocke]

Quick update:

I ran Disk Cleanup overnight, and come morning it had done exactly squat.

So yeah, my Disk Cleanup Wizard is borked somehow. :angry:

[kandrathe]

If a disk is over allocated (>80% full) and has very few large free spaces to rewrite contiguous blocks to it can churn forever and get nowhere.

I would go into your browser cache and delete everything, as well as any temp files on your disk. Uninstall anything you don't use or want on your HD. Consider uninstalling some apps with huge footprints that are easy to reinstall. Archive off of you HD as much old stuff as you can (burn stuff like MP3's onto CD's and delete from your HD). Then try to defrag it again. Then, add back anything you need to reinstall.

[WarLocke]

Archive off of you HD as much old stuff as you can (burn stuff like MP3's onto CD's and delete from your HD)

This is a big part of my problem right here. I have at least 3gb of various stuff I want to archive, but the only I/O device I have is a 3.5" floppy. No zip drives or burners, no nothing. <_<

I'll see about clearing my cache and temp files and such manually; thanks for the tip.

[kandrathe]

No zip drives or burners, no nothing.

I see a use for your next earned $40. :)

http://www.newegg.com

[WarLocke]

Oooh.

Now to open a bank account, so I can get a debit/credit card, so I can order off of the internet... :angry:

[Artega]

You don't have a checking account? How do you get by, dude?

Anyway, most people will suggest you run ScanDisk at least once a week, and Defrag at least once a month. It's also suggested that you always maintain at least 300MB of free space on your hard drive, but that advice may be a bit dated by today's 200GB standards.

It takes my drive about six hours to defrag, and about ten minutes for a normal ScanDisk. Thorough ScanDisk can take up to two hours, and crashes sometimes. I have a 4GB drive, and I can rarely have a game installed and maintain that 300MB buffer. Baldur's Gate II frequently leaves me with less than 150MB of free space, and that's with a piddly-diddly 180MB cache. Diablo II consumes up to about 320MB free, and Planescape: Torment (which is installed now) chews up my free space up to 280MB.

Feel blessed that you have a 20GB drive.

[WarLocke]

You don't have a checking account? How do you get by, dude?

Cash. Cold, hard cash. B)

Feel blessed that you have a 20GB drive.

I guess. But I I see people talking about their 180GB backup drive that has 120 hours of various television footage on it just because they have so much space to spare, and my vision just goes red... :angry:

[kandrathe]

I used to have only a savings account and worked on a cash only basis before I was married. I would have the bank draft my checks if I needed them. In fact, I never write checks now if I can help it. I use direct pay on all the bills I can. I think I can empathize with your lack of a relationship with a financial institution. :P But, I think the time has come. I think you will find the freedom rewarding.

[LochnarITB]

I see people talking about their 180GB backup drive that has 120 hours of various television footage on it just because they have so much space to spare, and my vision just goes red...&nbsp; :angry:

Nah, too easy a target. Sometimes you just have to go for it when one gets lobbed to you.

You can put TV footage on these backup drives?? Maybe I'll have to try that. I've got all this space to use up on my 160 gig backup drive. I have 3 backups of my laptop and disk images of the game and music cd's I use frequently and still have SOO much space. I guess some TV would fit the bill to use some of that HUGE drive, unless, of course, I find some good pr0n to do the job.

Sorry War, you're just too easy to get worked up. It is just too fun. I do have to laugh at drive sizes these days. When I was in an IT department about 8 years ago, we were thrilled to get two 1/2 gig drives for the network server. This was for a 3rd party insurance administrator that employed ~100 people who spent most of the day on the system.

And, I know what you're going to say. Just to save you the trouble, it's the first house east of the park. :lol:

[Bob]

just a guess, but surely find doesn't look through temp internet files. I've mounted about 10k (I think it was) temp internet files, and my find runs in about 90 secs, so I'd guess that it doesn't search through them. but a disk clean up might do, and I should imagine lots of little files takes longer to process that a few big files to the same overall size

-Bob

Artega: if you get a pokemon avatar, so do I *searches for psyduck piccies*

edit: make that 48k files taking up 1.07 Gigs. It is safe to just select the folder & hit delete, innit?

edit2: clarified myself a bit

[WarLocke]

Sorry War, you're just too easy to get worked up.

You're mean. :(

:angry:

Okay, okay... deep breaths...