How do I wipe a laptop freespace clean?

[charliedwsr]

I have an Emachines E725 laptop MFG in 2013. A friend told me to wipe the free space and the computer will work better.

Okay, now how do I wipe the free space?

Thanks!

[TC6969]

I think you misunderstood him Charlie.

Free space is space that has nothing on it.

[REDinFL]

I’ll guess “defrag” is what the person meant. Defragmentation of the disc can help performance, especially a hard disc. I’m assuming you are using windows. Look for the magnifying glass symbol (search) and type “optimize drives.” Some earlier windows releases may only respond to “defragment.” Also, the optimize utility will take unused junk off, which makes more free space available.

What happens is the files aren’t even stored together when first put on the drive. There are memory sectors, size depending on the drive, which hold pieces of the file. A FAT, File Allocation Table keeps track of all the sectors. When data is written, rewritten, erased some sectors may not be reused, and the sectors used for a particular file get scattered. The FAT knows where they are, finds them, but the physical distances take more time to cover to retrieve the information. Putting them back together makes the retrieval faster. No, they do not necessarily sit next to each other, either. To allow time for the head to retrieve them, they are spaced apart, with other files in between. That’s an interleave factor, which affects the time, but the details are technicalities.

[TC6969]

I’ll guess “defrag” is what the person meant.

Charlie,

If you had a plate of food, it would be no problem scooping up a forkful of corn or a few green beans.

If I walked up and stirred up all the food, it would take you a LOT longer to get that forkful of corn cause you would have to dig through the mashed potato.

Defragging puts all the food back where it belongs.

Another thing that's good is to get a program that deletes old unused files

Some of the time things you do on the internet leave a little piece of themselves behind to further clog things up.

[BerettaRacer]

Ask the Hildabeast Clinton

[Tenzing_Norgay]

Donate it to the Antique Computer Museum and get a Chromebook for less than $250.

[Wulfmann]

Defrag once a year. When you go to that you can click to check if you need it and it will scan and yes yes or no

Anyone know if I can delete (and how) the "One Drive" from my laptop?

I would like to be disconnected from "The cloud" or will that prompt an FBI search?

[joel]

Ask the Hildabeast Clinton

Someone had to say it. Thanks for being the first. So, bleach or like with a cloth?

[REDinFL]

Defrag once a year. When you go to that you can click to check if you need it and it will scan and yes yes or no

Anyone know if I can delete (and how) the "One Drive" from my laptop?

I would like to be disconnected from "The cloud" or will that prompt an FBI search?

Search "Programs" and find "Microsoft One Drive" ( if you look for one drive you'll likely bypass it, it's in the m's). On its listing you'll see 3 dots. Click on those. There will be an uninstall option. The newer versions of Windows call those programs "apps", which won't show up on the Control Panel, for example. An older version, I think 8, would show them on the Control Panel.

[N4KVE]

Like Archie Bunker describing a balanced meal to the Meat Head. GARY.