My system has been so cranky. Slow. locks up. Can't work with it.
Took 2+ minutes to open a window.
The windows system and all major programs and are up to date. No known bugs, infections. The main problem is that system is just too full to be effective.
Hard drive is 451GB. And had 102
GB free space. And yet system was locking up. I have to have at least 120GB free to function decently. That's HUGE space that I must leave unused in my computer. I keep running out of space.
On several occasions I have pruned files, moved to backups. But that buys me only a few days before problems...
SO... for the last few days I have been removing files, uninstalled some programs, moved data. Was up til 4am the last couple nights working on it... That got my system up to 138GB free. Then ran
IObit Smart Defrag 2 on "Defrag and fast optimize".
My free space is now 169GB! Highest it's been in a couple years.
I have used that free defrag program (or previous versions) on my old XP computer and office machines but not on this Win 7 system. Love the results. Still so much better than built in windows defrag. Would recommend it to anyone.
Rebooted system and it loaded much better. Windows open normally now.
I don't use registry cleaners, they can REALLY cause problems. So for now... I am done. Now I can get back to what I wanted to get done earlier this week!
Running backup on C drive now....
System and data safe for another few days.
I think I have a bad sound card (integrated) as the system sometimes just stops making sounds... then videos stop playing. But that is a worry for another day....