Why does my laptop run so slow now?

Question

i got a virus on my computer that completely killed my computer! i had to re-download windows XP on it. now that i have done that it is running even slower!! is there a way to fix that? i realize that since i only have a 64 meg processor its gonna be on the slow side anyways but it was never THIS slow. and now when i reboot it it tells me that "...the failure of your hard drive is immanent..." and that i need to quickly get a new one. so i use a 320 gig external hard drive with all of my contents backed up. but its been telling me this for about a year. do i need to re-download windows XP again? and could switching to linux or another os help? If so please tell me the best os for my laptop. PLEASE HELP! sorry for the long paragraph.

Answer 1

     From what I know, you should probably free up some hard drive space on the drive in your computer. If you can, try to get EVERYTHING on your backup drive. When you re-installed Windows, you would have taken up between 6 and 11 Gb of your hard drive. When you have more free space, the computer runs faster.

     You could try installing Windows on the external hard drive, but it might not allow that and even if it worked, you would have to have it plugged in all the time. If the cord slipped, who knows what would be on the screen. If you are willing to do this, try to uninstall Windows from your main hard drive. I don't know if this can be done because I have a Mac, but operating systems are never too different.

     Another thing you could do is see if you can get the hard drive in your computer replaced, or it might be time to upgrade. Keep the Windows XP disks because if you do want to get a new laptop, Vista will be on it, and I don't know about you, but a lot of people hate it. XP is fine.

     Switching to a different OS probably wouldn't help, because all of your stuff might not be compatible with it. Also, this is a hardware issue and can't be solved by a new OS. I downloaded a file with a virus once, and was constantly calling apple stores and Best Buy. I reinstalled Mac OS X Leopard and it fixed it, but if it hadn't, they said the virus wreaked my hard drive. This might be the case, but again, I have a eMac.

     If nothing works, get a new laptop.

Hope I helped! : )

Answer 2

If your computer is telling you that then you should definitely take it in.

Answer 3

I'm no computer genius, but I think when you get a virus it affects the hardware. You should probably take it in to a store that knows their stuff.