c drive memory

[MURKY]

My computer is old, 6 years old but in it's day it was the height of coolness. It only has a 9gb memory I have 3.10 GB left and I am trying to free more, I have deleted all programs and files that are not in use. How can I see what is taking up all this memory? I have 3000 spy ware and ad ware files on my computer? Does this take up memory? I cannot get rid of it after using every free spyware prog, it either crashes the computer or removing spy ware damages my network and then I have to restore it. Help me please. Oh yes I also have annoying error alerts which pop up for a program, how can I get rid of these too?

[d0gsb0dy]

What platform are you running on?

[MURKY]

Windows 2000

[Hippy]

It sounds like you could be knitting fog for the rst of your life with this one. Best plan is to transfer all important data (not programme files) to another medium (zip disc, CDR, another HD etc.) and then format the original drive and start again. Install W2K, Motherboard drivers, Modem drivers and get on line to do Windows Update and get all patches and servicde Pack 4.

Then install other programmes (Microsoft Office, Works, whatever) from original discs and perform updated for these. Having done that install a decent anti-virus proggy and keep definitions up to date and some anti-spyware is a good idea (Ad-Aware, Spybot etc.) and finally, a personal firewall (Zone alarm etc).

It will probably take a weekend to do it, so plan ahead and gather all the discs together first. Remember, once you start, unless you have a second machine and some method of transferring files, you will not be able to access the Internet until things are going properly. So, get those Motherboard and Modem driver discs sorted as a priority.

It sounds drastic, but is is FAR simpler than trying to rescue a system riddled with bots, spys, nasties and fragments of garbage, and very possibly mangled OS files.

[QmunkE]

I concur with Hippy - after spending several hours trying to remove all sorts of really nasty spy/adware from a friends computer, and then watching as it reinstalled itself despite my best efforts, I advised a total clean start. If your computer will take it, I'd also recommend installing XP instead of 2000 - it's far more stable and much easier to fix problems on.