Question about reformating my pc

[ornakola]

Hello!

I have a computer that is full of crap I barely use, and I've noticed that it runs slower now then what it did when i first got it. I don't really want to reformate it just like that, since I've lost some of the program boxes, meaning I couldn't reinstall the programs.

My question is: Could I copy the computer to an external hard disk, and reformate the original hard disk, and then, if I wanted to use one of the old programs, just plug the external disk into the computer and run the program?

OS: Windows 7
Brand: HP (hewlett packard)
Name of external hard disk: Seagate GoFlex


Thanks for your help

[Spoiler]

To get your programs to work you have to install them. You can't just copy them.

[2x3i5x]

To get your programs to work you have to install them. You can't just copy them.

If some of your programs are portable, then you can copy to external drive and run directly from there. Else you probably need do standard installation, as programs probably need write to registry to get it working properly.


Slow PC?

1. Have you run disk defragment? Auslogics Disk Defrag is a free disk defrag program I like; I'm not a fan of window's built in disk defrag for some reason.

2. Run disk cleanup (type disk cleanup into win 7's start menu search box to find it)

3. Remove old programs you don't need, having plenty of free space on computer helps

4. Visit the computer hope malware forum to have your pc checked up, maybe someone there can help you revive your pc.

[Allan]

1. Have you run disk defragment? Auslogics Disk Defrag is a free disk defrag program I like; I'm not a fan of window's built in disk defrag for some reason.

Defragging will only help a very little if at all


2. Run disk cleanup (type disk cleanup into win 7's start menu search box to find it)

Will help get rid of "junk", but has nothing to do with performance

3. Remove old programs you don't need, having plenty of free space on computer helps

Unless the disc is full, uninstalling programs has zero effect on performance. Free space does NOT = better performance

4. Visit the computer hope malware forum to have your pc checked up, maybe someone there can help you revive your pc.

SuperDave is keeping pretty busy. Unless there is some indication of malware we'd prefer you run your own scans with your AV and MalwareBytes

[2x3i5x]

Thanks allan for the comments. 

It wouldn't hurt to do spring cleaning, maybe the computer responds better after doing it, even though some of the stuff, I agree are not directly related to performance increasing like you said.