My Computer is having an emotional crisis

My computer has a 32 GB hard drive (big, I know) but It only has about 2 Gb free. I'm taking a guess that everyting in there including windows is about 15-20 GB and I have always wondered If there is a way to restore it back to factory settings without a complete format.Also my external hard drive shows up as a folder on the my computer window and takes about a minute to open, any guesses on what's wrong?( PS, I don't have xp install disk any more so no formatting or along those lines)

first thing you can do is remove all the crap you don't need on your C: Drive and then run a programme to delete all temporary files (like ccleaner) if you have never done this you might have even up to a few gb of temporary files. with more space you should get a bit better performance.

Mikiie · #1My computer has a 32 GB hard drive (big, I know) but It only has about 2 Gb free. I'm taking a guess that everyting in there including windows is about 15-20 GB and I have always wondered If there is a way to restore it back to factory settings without a complete format.Also my external hard drive shows up as a folder on the my computer window and takes about a minute to open, any guesses on what's wrong?( PS, I don't have xp install disk any more so no formatting or along those lines)

Firstly, 32Gb isn't big(40 Gb I assume), secondly, you said your external hardisk shows a folder icon? then it means your external got infected by virus.try scan it first.

Replying to #3

No, it does not mean anything of the sort. a folder icon is just windows tripping over itself, and taking a minute to open is either fragmentation or a slow interface.

-zeRo- · #3Firstly, 32Gb isn't big(40 Gb I assume), secondly, you said your external hardisk shows a folder icon? then it means your external got infected by virus.try scan it first.

He was being sarcastic.

Mikiie · #1My computer has a 32 GB hard drive (big, I know) but It only has about 2 Gb free. I'm taking a guess that everyting in there including windows is about 15-20 GB and I have always wondered If there is a way to restore it back to factory settings without a complete format.Also my external hard drive shows up as a folder on the my computer window and takes about a minute to open, any guesses on what's wrong?( PS, I don't have xp install disk any more so no formatting or along those lines)

Your external drive shows as a folder?I just go to my computer/what ever drive it is.Mine takes time-but that's because it's a 1TB drive running 2 usb's (one is an extension) just to my laptop.How big is your external?

250 GB

340 GB (l know, lts not one hard drive) it has 150 + 190 GBit only has left: 112 + 190 (whole hard drive).

Yeah, if you can't reformat, all you can do is remove temp files/cache/ and uninstall uneeded programs (not neccesarily in that order)how old is your PC...if thats your stock drive (40GB) I'm going to guess you got that PC back in 1999-2001? does it have USB 2.0?
USB 2.0 wasn't in any consumer computers till 2002.
I know running any kind of large USB drives over 1.0 and 1.1 can be frustratingly slow, even just to get the properties.Also, yes it could be Windows doing a fumble and showing your external as a folder.... OR it could be it was accidently given that icon
Right click your removable drive -> Properties -> Customize tab (or something like that) and it should give you the option to Choose a folder picture or restore to default