Im pretty computer literate, but when it comes to computer hardware and internals I dont know too much, just the basics. So hopefully you guys will be able to help me out.
I want to upgrade a few things on my computer and would like to know how to go about some stuff and have some general questions.

1. I want to upgrade the USB ports on my computer from USB 1.0 to USB 2.0 (or whatever the fastest USB ports now are). How would I go about doing this?

2. My computer is a P4 2.4 and Ive had it for almost 6 years now. I got it pretty much right when it came out on the market. Its starting to slow down a bit and was wondering how I would go about making it faster. I know I can update the memory. Right now it has 1GB of memory. 2x 512MB chipsets. Would putting 2 or 4 GB of memory make it faster or would I have to get a new processor aswell for it?

3. If I were to have to get a new processor would that mean that I would need a new mother board or anything like that? Would I have to format or do something drastic? I dont want to have to deal with stuff like formatting.

4. I have a DVD burner and it doesnt work and have problems even getting it to burn and read normal CDs. Also for some reason my computer shows 3 CD Rom devices when I only have 2 of them. Yes I had Daemon tools, but that isnt enabled and has nothing to do with it. It only shows another drive when I have it turned on.

5. I have a floppy drive slot, but during the great HD crash of 04 for one reason or another the computer shop took it. No big deal, but it still shows up on my comptuer as there. Does this matter at all?

6. Ive got about 4GB of space left on my C:. I only have essential programs on there out of the 40GB of of space that is C:. I have the HD segmented into C: which is 40GB and D which is 60GB. Is there a way to transfer or move the parition to C: a bit more without screwing up what is on my HD so that I can have more space on my C:? I have a 500GB external HD already and my files are on that, but I want to move more spaec onto C:. Is that possible? If not is there a way to remove stuff that might be hidden to free up more space? What is taking up all the space is the windows updates and hoenstly its pissing me off that each time I turn on my computer I have lower space on my comptuer. I know I should turn off updates, and I have, but sometimes I need to update to use parts of windows that are essential to the task Im doing.

Thats everything I can think of for now. Any insight into any of these questions would be great and I appriciate any sugessions or help that you guys might have.

Thanks
CRX Forum

1) There is two ways to get USB 2.0 ports. A new motherboard, or a USB 2.0 PCI card. You can probably pick up a PCI USB 2.0 card for like $30, and its MUCH friendlier than a new board.

2) Depending on what you're doing, 1gb can be plenty. I personally have 2gb in mine, and NEVER come close to using all of it. If you run lots of memory intensive programs at the same time, jumping up to 2gb is never a bad idea. 4gb is useless unless you have a 64bit processor(which you don't), and run a 64bit OS. You could use 3, but thats the most you'll be able to use with a 32bit processor/OS.

3) You could potentially get a slightly faster processor and keep your current motherboard, but its not worth it. If you're going to get a faster chip you should be getting a core2duo(or AMD equivalent). That'll require a new motherboard and new RAM though. If you get a new board, you'll very likely have to format/reinstall. I have seen the odd time where windows doesn't blow up with a motherboard change, but thats VERY rare.

4) Double check with Daemon tools, you have to specifically go in and set the number of devices to be disabled or it'll show a drive even if the program isn't running. If the DVD burner isn't reading properly and won't burn, its very likely either dirty or toast. New DVD burners are like $30 now, just make sure you get an IDE one not SATA(unless you get a new motherboard that supports SATA).

5) I wouldn't worry about the floppy.. Its weird that it still detects though. Did they possibly just move it inside the case to the wrong spot so you can't see it through the slot?

6) Partition magic *can* resize a partition like that, but it can be PAINFULLY slow... Like could take many days, or beyond a week.

If you go to c:\windows\ and set it to view hidden files, and system files there will be quite a few folders that are named something like $NtUninstall.... Those are all the updates, you can definitely just delete all of them. You won't be able to uninstall the updates, but if its been running fine after a reboot then who cares.

I'd also bet that system restore is taking up a HUGE chunk of space. Right click the 'my computer' icon and go to properties, then system restore tab. Click on the C:\ drive, then settings. I have mine to use 2% of the drive, which is ~480mb.. By default, it'll be using A LOT more. You can also turn it off on the D:\ drive if you want, since its kinda useless on a non system drive.

For about $360 including tax you can get a much faster computer these days:

Canada Computers - Computer Systems > Ready to Go Systems : Visionary I5000 - AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+, ATI RADEON X1250 Graphics (Vista Aero support), 2GB (2x1GB) DDR2 667, 250GB HDD, 18X DVD-Writer.

I was thinking about something like this myself, but after some thought as to what the current computer is used for (surfing and d/l ing) I realized that I could use a new HD not a whole computer

Man, it sounds like you and I have the same computer, is it an MDG?

I normally run spybot and do anti-virus quite regularily to keep it running smooth. I search out all the programs that run in the background as well as those that load up at startup and find out what they are. If they're not essential, or for some add in I don't even have or want to run in the background it gets removed or unistalled. I find doing this every couple of months or so really keeps it running good. There's a lot of crap that shows up in the background that doesn't need to be there. As for processor and memory you'll want to figure out the brand and model of mother board in your comp, then check out the specs on it. I found that with my motherboard the biggest processor I could put in there was a 2.8, the cost wasn't worth it over the 2.4 I already have. Also check to see how many free memory slots you have, I though about throwing another gig in my computer to find out I only had a single slot left, so I could only max it out at 1.5Gb.

What's the 2.0 ports going to be mainly used for? If it's for the external HD and the HD has a SATA connection look into a e-SATA card.