How to Clean Up a Hard Drive
Cleaning a hard drive to free up disk space is a hassle. You don’t want to delete something important, but you don’t want to sift through the thousands of files to delete unwanted files either. Chances are, many of those unwanted files are not making a big impact on your drive space anyhow. With today’s huge drives, thousand of small unwanted documents may not make a dent in the problem. It is the movies you forgot to delete after watching, large program install files that you no longer need, programs you never use, and photos that you do not want.
What you need is a disk space tool that can dig into your drive and show you the largest files that are taking up space. That program is WinDirStat. It’s a free download. After installing WinDirStat, in a few minutes it will list all of the files on your computer and provide a visual chart to show you where the largest files are. From there it easy to find what you can remove. In a few minutes I found 20gb of files that I no longer needed.
For the photos, there is no easy way. I use Picasa to quickly scan through the photos and remove the duplicates and unwanted photos.
To check for rarely used programs, go to the control panel – add/remove programs, and then sort by frequency to find programs that you rarely use.
After you have removed the unwanted files. Empty the recycle bin, then defrag your drive to optimize performance.
Lenovo S10 Netbook
Lenovo S10 Netbook Review
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Why a Netbook?
I have been sceptical about netbooks since they started getting popular. Why would a person pay $350 when they could pay $500 and get a full laptop? Size and convenience is the only reason. These things are small and have mobile computing as their primary function. Mobility is the only thing that makes them desirable.
How limited is the Lenovo S10?
The main limitation is the screen size. At only 10 inches with a 1024×600 resolution screen, it’s small. I find it clear enough to do most web browsing, but it’s not nearly enough for photo editing. It is good enough for most document editing. You can connect to a large monitor for better viewing, but the video card still is not going to compare to a regular laptop.
The keyboard is tiny also. You have to get used to a cramped keyboard. This can be solved by connecting an external keyboard when you are not mobile. It’s not so bad that you cannot use it, it’s just more uncomfortable than a regular laptop keyboard.
The Intel Atom processor is less powerful than other new processors. In an effort to make the system consume less power, the Intel Atom 1.6ghz processor was used. This has plenty of power for most applications, but activities like video editing are going to be limited.
There is no DVD/CD player or recorder. You must network to a shared drive on another computer or use a USB External Drive .
What are they good for?
Photos
Your camera and it’s accessories are enough hassle. At the size of a large Bible, the netbook can be protected and stowed in your luggage easier than a full laptop. The 160 gig hard drive is large enough to transfer the photos to. The network capability will let you send them over the Internet anytime you get near a WIFI connection. You will not be able to do much quality editing, but you can get photos uploaded and saved.
Video chat, Facebook, Twitter, E-mail, Music, Etc.
There is a built in camera, speakers, and microphone for video chat. If you just want to get on the Interenet with basic communication functions, there is a 5 second startup system that allows quick on and off just for this.
Just Convenience
Most people do not want lug a laptop without a good reason. The netbook is small enough that you do not need to have a purpose to carry it. It’s there and ready for up to 6 hours of use on a charge and you can carry it with the same convenience that you would carry a book.
The Lenovo S10 also has Bluetooth capabilities for any compatible devices that you may have.
In Conclusion
I would recommend the IBM Lenovo S10 for any computer user that likes the convenience and/or does not need the full power of a laptop. The S10 has the quality build that you would expect from IBM and the extra features are worth the slightly higher price. There are a few available for about $50 less, but they are so lacking that you lose some important functionality. Some cheaper netbooks have a Linux operating system. The Linux systems are great for many reasons, but much more difficult to do anything more advanced than web browsing and e-mail.
Create PDF’s With Free CutePDF Software
Printing to a PDF is a handy function to have and you can have it for free. CutePDF is a free program which allows you to choose “PDF Output” as an option when you print.
When the PDFoption is selected, the output automatically goes to a PDF file. Once your output is in PDF format, anyone with Adobe reader can read or print it without any other special programs. A PDF can also be stored on your computer for later printing and/or saving a searchable document that has more flexibility than any other format.
I am so accustomed to having the PDF option when printing, that I often forget the name of the program. Everytime I get a new computer, I end up trying to remember the name of the program. I’m posting this in hopes that the next time I forget, I’ll find it in my own posts.
Resurrecting Old Computers With Linux
I’ve heard that Linux can resurrect old computers into something useful. I happened to have an old Emachine W1640 1.4ghz machine laying around to give this a try on.
I started the project by finding the disks that came with the computer. I used these to set it back to factory specifications. Surprise, it ran Windows great with a fresh install. All that it took was to update Windows with the 2 service packs and all the other patches, then this computer was dead in the water, again. Every upgrade slowed the computer more and more. I was thinking the memory of 128mb was to low, so I ordered a 1gig stick for $40.
While waiting for the memory to arrive, I tried to install Ubuntu. It wouldn’t even run using the LiveCD function. The LiveCD function is where you can run Linux from a CD without using the hard drive to run the computer. I knew for sure that the memory was just to small and decided to try Xubunu that’s designed for slow computers. Just as I finished downloading the ISO image to make the Xubuntu CD, the new memory arrived. We’ll never know if it would work on 128mb of memory or not, as I installed the memory before loading Xubuntu.
I could have chose Damn Small Linux or Puppy Linux, but that’s just not enough for me anymore. I need all the graphical interfaces that a full Linux Distribution provides. I’m not into Linux enough to set and fight with the command line for hours on end.
Xubuntu installed very easily. I let it automatically install for a dual-boot with Windows. It automatically figured out I had an empty hard drive and installed itself there. It also automatically configured a boot loader. The boot loader allows you to choos your operating system on startup.
Xubuntu is just a downsized Ubuntu. It works very well with the 1.4ghz processor and 1.128gb of memory. I added all of the applications I need through the application manager with no trouble at all.
So for $40, I’ve got a computer that runs like a new one. There’s a Christmas miracle for you!
If you would like your old computer brought back to life, let me know. I charge $50 for the install. If you need memory, that will be extra. I would suggest at least 1ghz and I would recommend Xubuntu for any computer with less that a 1ghz processor. If you’re close to Newark, Ohio – contact me at this link.
