Probably a dumb question, but I can't seem to find anything on the web to answer this.

I have a dual boot on desk puter, old install of Win98 occupies C drive ( 8.25GB with 4.60GB free ) with assorted garbage I am not willing to just F disk away for sentimental reasons as much as anything else. D drive( 11.7GB with 6.0 free ) is occupied with new install ( within last 6 mos ) of XP-P. Have 1.90GB free for virtual memory [Box is 863mHz, approx30GB HDD with 128 RAM]

Have been experiencing low puter performance. Use lava on regular weekly basis to clean out spyware and do sys maintainance scan-defrag weekly or so depending on usage levels...amount of web usage and install/delete of programs and apps.Have also done ctrl/alt/delete to check on background programs running and use rotwipe.exe to clear dll debris after all proggie uninstalls.

Is it poss that part of the reason performance is low is because of the old OS on the C drive and that I need to go into the cobwebs there and clean out/backup/delete and then F disk and repartition and then reinstall everything I want to keep using XP-P as the only OS?

Its a lot of work, but am not afraid to do it if needed. Can burn CD's of anything I really want to keep before F disking. Have installation software for all peripherals, the OS, and several proggies not freewared on the net. Have stored passwords for everything using one on a dedicated CD holding nothing else and clearly marked as such. The rest I can go out and retrieve and re-install after I re-partition off the HDD to accommodate the new OS, peripherals. and create a drive assigned for my music and another one to virtual memory.

Mucho sincere thanks in advance to anyone willing to help out with this idiot's question with comments, advice, or suggestions.

Ancient Toshiba CDT420 Satellite Pro laptop is now occupied with learning and installing brandy new Linux OS. Have taken the bit in the teeth and decided to try and teach this to myself. Much appreciation is sent to the Linux gurus around campus who have offered me assistance, website url's and advice. I keep telling myself "Don't Panic!" this is not advanced rocket science, it is simply a new way of doing something you can basically manage already.

Time will tell.

Once upon a time, in a far away place, there lived 3 little geeks who all were blessed to have Excellently sweet computers with T3 connections.

The first little geek loved to play flashmedia games, and spent all day eating cheetos and drinking Mountain Dew while winning zillions of points for being a Fine player. He hoped to someday cash in the points and win a baseball card.

The second little geek liked to cruise Forums and learn about the world from wise and erudite denizens of the cyber world. He was not very bright, either. He flourished.

The third little geek spent his online time visiting tech sites, learning about new discoveries in the binary world of flashing images, sound, and color. He was busy mastering C++ and graphics so that someday he could trash his winDoze and run Linux and be Kewl.

All three of them were avid users of file sharing programs where they got great music and shared their stashes with other online geeks.

All was happy in their little geek lives until one day when the Big Bad Darknet Underground (aka Bad D00d) came knocking at their doors.

The BBDU knocked on the door of the first little Geek

" Little geek, Little geek, let me come in. I want to scope out your HDD, snoop into your files, and rob you blind."

The little geek hollered: " Buzz off, creep."

" Then I'll huff and I'll puff and I'll send you a virus that will destroy your partitions and kill your HDD."

"Bite me, jerk0ff."

Soo, The BBDU huffed and he puffed and the geek discovered his entire system was now a fish tank decoration.

The Bad D00d then sauntered over to the house of the second little geek.

"Little geek, Little geek, let me come in. I want to rip out your guts, warp your programs, infest your e mail, and spam you forever."

" Yeah, right, sure. Eat dirt, cr33p."

"Then I'll huff and I'll puff and I'll send you a trojan that will steal your credit card numbers, wreak havoc in your Pay Pal, and screw up your e bay account so bad that you will get Barry Manilow recordings sent to your door every day for the rest of your life."

" Your father was a hamster and your mother reeked of elderberries.I spit on your threats, you wicked evil d00d."

Soo, he huffed and he puffed and the geek discovered viagra spam and penile enhancement adverts were his forever, the postal service cursed his name, his checks to Pizza Hunt bounced, and his life was ruined.

The now very Bad D00d went to the house of the third little geek.

"Little geek, Little geek, let me come in. I want to copy your hidden archive files, corrupt your OS, and  warp your scusi connection interfaces."

" Try it and die."

"Then I'll huff and I'll puff and I'll Nuke you offline and you will be phuqued."

"FukQ2!"

Sooo, he huffed and he puffed and nothing happened.

He huffed and he puffed and nothing happened again.

After 8,926 tries the BBDU stopped huffing and puffing.

"Little Geek...*puff*...Little geek....*huff*....I resign in defeat.  He gasped this out and he went away 4ever.

Now, you may ask yourself what the moral of this story is.

Guess what? If you believe this story is worth Anything at all YOU SPEND TOO MUCH TIME ON iRC.

Have a nice day, folks.