you should be fine... you should get a screen that says your in "diagnostic or selective startup mode". in this case, it's selective startup mode meaning you have somethings in your startup turned off. just check "don't show this message again".
I just bought a Seagate 300GB external drive - If I save all my doc files and addtional items (photos, videos, music) will I be able to transfer them over with no problem after doing a reformat? I guess it is a little scary messing with your files hoping you don't lose your items while reformating.
I'm glad someone started this thread. I've used the defrag before many times with great results but when I ran it on my laptop a few days ago, it made almost no difference. Anyone have any ideas? I think I have too many files that are just extremely fragmented. Almost all my tv shows from i tunes are in 2000 parts. These, along with a long list of others, were reported not to have defragmented. Thoughts? I have 17% Free memory.
This is the best example of why newer (software) isn't always better, especially on laptops. Lappys are harder to upgrade, and newer software revisions usually hide inefficiencies to make up for added features. I would try to add more ram and boost the virtual memory. If you're running Vista, switch back to XP. Also, a clean reformat will improve speed and performance because there's less software being loaded on every time you start and your registry isn't as bloated.
My Dell has only 1 RAM slot and it uses the shortest pin count. That means the highest I can go is 512 which I am currently at. I would love to rebuild the machine but I don't have any dell cds with the system drivers and OS. Most of the fragmented files were the ones I downloaded from apple. I sent those to another machine that has a bunch or space on its extra drive. I think with the extra room, they might degrag there.
The system drivers should be on Dell's website. As far as the OS goes, didn't they include a copy when you purchased your notebook? My back up copy would've cost me $10, but I found a way to get it for free. If worst comes to worst, find a college student to help you purchase Windows for $14. I looked up the specs on the ram, 144-pin SO-DIMM PC133, this tells me your notebook must be ancient!!!
How ironic that yesterday a power strike buzzed my computer. I have all essecntial files (Docs, Pitcures, Music, programs ans serial keys) on a small little 30GB travel drive. So I went ahead and cleaned installed my hard drive and then reinstalled any added on drivers that my computer needed (NVIDA card). I re-installed all my programs and copied over files off my backup drive. The computer is running like brand new. Really fast...I must have had some junk. I believe a clean install is a good annual thing to do. It takes a few hours to get back up to speed...but well worth it. I guess I need to check my surge protector..because my computer is on one.
