Painfully Slow

[Topazworm]

Hi
I have 2 computers. My second, my mums, is a 1.1 gig 256mb ram 40 gig hdd. Recently (At XMAS) my computer is working hard to do simple tasks, and i beleive its the hdd. Firstly defragging MY comps 180 gig hdd with 100 gig data takes an hour, my MUMS 40 gig hdd with 2 gig data takes the same time.
Loading up programmes and such just takes a long long time. Sorry i have no more info. Any advice would be appreciated

[beeboy]

topazworm. We need more information. Please tell us more about what operating systems are on each machine. Tell us about the software including firewall and antivirus you are using on each machine. How are they hooked up to the internet? Are both machines networked? We need to know more about the hardware each machine has. What programs are slow to load?

Do you run diskcleanup regularly? I see you defrag. Do you have an updated virus scanner? Have you tried an online virus scan (trend/micro). Do you have the free programs "adaware" and "spybots search & destroy". You could be bogged down by adware and spyware.
http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/
http://www.safer-networking.org/
http://housecall.trendmicro.com/