CX wrote:Did you try de-fragmenting first?
Yup, did that, didn't make any difference.
blacknblue wrote:I recommend investing in an external hard drive. They are worth the money. Save your data files, extra fonts, etc., as compressed backups on the external drive at regular intervals. Then when you need to reinstall you can just wipe, reformat and do a clean reinstall. Much swifter and easier.
Yeah, did that too - I just missed a few key things that I'd sort of forgotten about. I only have myself to blame.
I should perhaps add that Mr Drogna is an "IT professional" and did say several times "You have backed up everything you need?" And I said "yes, yes, all done." Which as I found out later turned out to be a lie on my part. His answer to the whole thing was "Use Linux", which actually is his answer to most of my computer problems and I'm beginning to wonder if he has a point. My laptop is the only machine in the house that uses Windows and at the last count we had four laptops and six desktops of various ages, all of which seem to have less issues than my laptop.