Can anyone walk me step by step through defragging my PC? PLEASE?

[fireflyxmasfairylights2]

Basically what the thread title says

My pc has been running very slow for the past few days. I think it's been a while since it was defragged and it was my friend who did it then I need to do it again. My antivirus ran out yesterday morning and my DH didn't pay any heed to the mcafee sign saying open to viruses and went online anyway... but I downloaded a new antivirus mcafee last night, but today it took ages to start up... so I fear there may be a sneaky virus got in I am scanning at the minute, but think I also need to defrag... can anyone help me? I know it might be a longshot for a Saturday night..but i'd be most greatful?

go to START > ALL PROGRAMMES > ACCESSORIES > SYSTEM TOOLS > DISK DEFRAGMENTER

Click on the my computer icon.

Right click on hard disk pos HDD.

Click on properties.

You can click on disk clean up to see if this helps or...

Click on the tools tab.

Click on defragment now.

Thanks both of you I have did it skribbles way as that's the way I seem to remember my friend doing it Hopefully that won't harm the scan that's being carried out too... going very very sluggish, and dh is now sitting happily typing away on his new laptop, after probably buggering mine up!

The defragger in Windows, I'm told, is a very old rebranded third-party piece of software and isn't that powerful.

I was recommended, and used, the no-obligation 30-day trial version of O&O Defrag Pro - which does a much more thorough (although laboriously slow) defrag of your hard drive.

Thanks, it can't be any slower than this one! I am so fed up! I maintain this pc... and always update the anti virus stuff as soon as it's run out.. but dh knows better.... and the new firewall must be really tight, it won't let me open any links and breathe......

I would do one at a time, not run both together.

If it's running like a dog it's probably more likely to be a virus sitting in your memory rather than your hard disk. Don't ignore this because you just don't know what it could be doing in there - worst case it could be capturing your keystrokes & thus your passwords.

Adaware is a good free virus checker. Just google it and you'll be able to find a download. It's always worth having more than one - you'll see why if you run McAfee & then run Adaware. Adaware will find a load that McAfee has missed.

Clean up your temporary files and internet cache too.

What's defragging?

It sounds kind of rude!

But sounds like I should do it to our PC!

Ok - I've just done it. Took aaagggeeesss.

DH seemed to think didn't need doing though.

Hiya all, I shut it off last night as it was taking sooo long So today I scanned it first with mcafee, only found a few cookies, then defragged... then DH reminded me that last time it went like this I had just downloaded a msn messenger..and what had I done on Thursday...yep..downloaded msn messenger! So I have just uninstalled that and am at the minute running my ad-aware.. thanks for reminding me about that arfishymeau

"Clean up your temporary files and internet cache too. "

Erm.. How do I do this?

I'm in Firefox so I can't remember how to do it in other browsers like Exploder, which I used to use. In Firefox you go TOOLS-OPTIONS-PRIVACY and it brings up a dialogue box.

Hi Fairyfly - Go to Tools, Internet Options, & on the very first tab (General) you'll see a box for clearing your temporary files & cookies.

Don't worry about not knowing. You clearly have a life