[Web4lib] pcs running more slowly as time passes

[David Kane]

Hi John,

Yes it is strange how that happens, isn't it?

My only suggestion is that you try defragmenting the hard drives on the
workstations.  Also free up space on them by deleting old stuff.

Fragmented files cause the hard drive to work harder jumping between the
fragments of the file.  This is sometimes known as 'thrashing'.  The fuller
a disk gets, the more likely files are to be stored in a fragmented way.
 Defragmenting them can help with speed because it removes all unecessary
movements from the hard drive, and makes it last longer.

Try the scandisk utility also.  Defragment and Scandisk are standard on all
Windows operating systems.

David.

On 10 June 2010 12:14, John Fitzgibbon <jfitzgibbon at galwaylibrary.ie> wrote:

> Hi,
>
> Our public access computers have a PCI card (Juzt-Reboot) which restores
> the PC to its initial state each time the PC is rebooted.
>
> Notwithstanding, it is my impression that these PCs are running more slowly
> with the passing of time. Also, the PCs freeze. Sometimes when the PCs
> freeze, the operating system displays an hour glass and sometimes it does
> not.
>
> I have updated Windows using the Windows update site. This upgraded the
> operating system from Windows XP Service Pack 2 to Windows XP Service Pack 3
> and updated the browser to IE 8. I also updated Adobe Reader, Flash and
> Java. I am not sure if these updates resulted in any improvement.
>
> I then turned off automatic updates for Windows as well as update
> notifications for Adobe Reader, Flash and Java.
>
> In spite of having Juzt-Reboot cards, we run an Anti Virus package on each
> PC (which we manually update from time to time). I know this slows down the
> PCs booting process but I am not sure that a Juzt-Reboot card is sufficient
> protection.
>
> Is my impression that the PCs are running more slowly as time passes likely
> to be correct? If yes, how can this be and what can I do about it.
>
> I would appreciate any advice.
>
>
> Regards,
>
> John
>
>
>
> John Fitzgibbon
>
>
>
> w: www.galwaylibrary.ie
>
> e: info at galwaylibrary.ie
>
> p: 00 353 91 562471
>
> f: 00 353 91 565039
>
>
>
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-- 
David Kane
Systems Librarian
Waterford Institute of Technology
Ireland
http://library.wit.ie/
davidfkane at googlewave.com
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