I understand that it's the RAM that controls the speed.  I guess what I don't understand is does it get used up like a HD or something?  Maybe I just need more RAM?

 RAM or Random Access Memory does not get used up.  It's permanent. 

 
It gathers information from the hard drive and stores it for a micro second then sends it to the processor.  Data is constantly being stored and sent.  The more RAM you have the faster the processor can run because it isn't waiting on the HD.  RAM is like a line of people at the movies.  The more ticket booths you have open the faster you sell tickets.  The more RAM you have the faster you can process info.

When you turn the computer off it clears the RAM. 

RAM is different than Storage Space,  Hard Drives are Storage Space.
 

For photo use, I'd be thinking about a desktop computer and a monitor. Laptops are notorious for being a pain to calibrate the monitor since it moves and is never in the same viewing position twice. In addtion, you can get big a$$ hard drives for nothing that will do all you need.

How big is the drive in your laptop now?  To clean it up for now you can right click on the c drive icon, then click properties, then do the disk cleanup. See if that doesn't help free up space.

It's also important to be using an up to date antivirus, AVG from free. grisoft.com is free and works well for me. Anti-spyware like Spybot Search and Destroy and Adaware, should be used about once a week or so too.

You should also set your software so that only you are checking for updates. Many of them set themselves up to phone home and end up installing themselves as phoning home automatically and they end up hogging the process. Itunes, Quicktime, realplayer and others are infamous for this behavior.

Dave

 I  gave up trying to calibrate my notebook's monitor.  I edit on a seperate monitor and have been for over a year now. 

 As far as space goes, it says I have 58.5 GB used and 15.9 GB free.  I have AVG and Spybot and use them regularly.    I will check the update status on the software, though. 

Dave W:

For photo use, I'd be thinking about a desktop computer and a monitor. Laptops are notorious for being a pain to calibrate the monitor since it moves and is never in the same viewing position twice. In addtion, you can get big a$$ hard drives for nothing that will do all you need.

How big is the drive in your laptop now?  To clean it up for now you can right click on the c drive icon, then click properties, then do the disk cleanup. See if that doesn't help free up space.

It's also important to be using an up to date antivirus, AVG from free. grisoft.com is free and works well for me. Anti-spyware like Spybot Search and Destroy and Adaware, should be used about once a week or so too.

You should also set your software so that only you are checking for updates. Many of them set themselves up to phone home and end up installing themselves as phoning home automatically and they end up hogging the process. Itunes, Quicktime, realplayer and others are infamous for this behavior.

Dave

 

 Windows files, programs files, temp files, Process files only take up a small percentage of Hard-drive space. On my computer only 19GB are for  those and I have a LOT of programs on there. It is all the photos and Music files that take up most of your space and can be confirmed by checking the by checking the properties of My Documents Vs the properties of your C drive. You need to have about 10% of your drive free to have enough space for your Windows Swap file...what it uses when you run out of RAM or your computer slows down too.

Another thing to make Photoshop run faster if you get a second hard-drive is to have your Photoshop Scratch disk(what Photoshop uses when you run out of RAM) to a different disk then the program is install on. You can find this in the Preferences tab in Photoshop 

 The other thing is that even though you"Un-install" programs, they often do a bad job of getting rid of all the files on your computer and leave behind a lot of trash. Go though your Program files and look for folders from programs you have deleted and clean up that stuff. Just be careful deleting something that has .dll files in it cuz they may be used by another program and if you delete them..it really causes problems,

there are utilities out there that  can clean up this junk too 

I agree with Moose, scary as that thought is. You have a bunch of photos and music on there. I'd be very surprised if you have more than 10 gigs of software on it.

You need to find a geek that will change out your 80 gig hard drive for one thats like 250 gigs. They are available for 115-175 on newegg.com. It's not particularly hard, just have to do things in the right order.

 Keep us posted!

Dave

Moose:

 

Another thing to make Photoshop run faster if you get a second hard-drive is to have your Photoshop Scratch disk(what Photoshop uses when you run out of RAM) to a different disk then the program is install on. You can find this in the Preferences tab in Photoshop 

So could the scratch disk be on an external drive?

Ok, I checked the properties of the following folders:

My Pictures: 26GB

My Music: 5.76GB

My Documents: 34.9GB

I tried to run disc cleanup 4 times.  Each time it turns my compter off and I have to wait at least 5 minutes or so before it will turn back on.  I give up!

And I don't understand this...if RAM doesn't get used up and I have 1 GB of it, why is PS running so slow?

basicbeginner:

Moose:

 

Another thing to make Photoshop run faster if you get a second hard-drive is to have your Photoshop Scratch disk(what Photoshop uses when you run out of RAM) to a different disk then the program is install on. You can find this in the Preferences tab in Photoshop 

So could the scratch disk be on an external drive?

yes it could and I have my Externals as a third in line Scratch disc. I have it  #1 My D  drive , #2 My C drive (both of these are internal) and #3 my G drive an external.... The reason I do it this way is because the transfer rate of an internal is faster then a USB external drive... BUT yes you can use an external with no problem..PROVIDED it is on any time your computer is on. 

One of the best pieces of advice on here was by Wendi... You really need to stop programs that are running in the background... they use up more resources then you would ever guess or even know are happening .

here is something you can check..with no programs open, Hit ctrl+alt+ Del to bring up your windows task manager and go to the performance tab...look at your physical memory and see how much of your memory is used up with nothing open... that may give you some clues as to things running in the background

Also go to the memory tab in your PS preferences and see what percentage of available RAM you are allotting and maybe up that..it may make other programs running simultaneously run slower but may speed up PS 

Check out a free program called treesize.

http://www.jam-software.com/freeware/index.shtml

It checks your hard drive and shows you exactly where all of your hard drive space is being used up.  Perhaps you have some large files that were stored in a deep down subdirectory that you are un-aware of.

Greg

My computer has two internal HD's

250 GB for the OS and software has 88 GB used

500 GB for photos, movies and documents has 331 GB used.

I have two external 500 GB HD's for backup.

Lisa, I hate to say this but I think it's time for a new desktop computer. 

The decision is: upgrade RAM and buy an external HD or put the money into a new deskt

 

I went to HPs site, and it appears your notebook will support up to 4 gigs of ram. I would go to crucial.com and allow the site to tell you how much RAM can be installed on your computer and consider buying the max available for your computer. You may have to let crucial install some software to let it do the check. It's ok, let them do what they have to. I would try to get to at least 2 gigs if 4 is too much. To get to the 4 gig level, you will need to remove the module(s) that are there and replace them with 2 two gig chips. That looks like it would cost about $120.

Getting rid of any background software or tasks will also speed up the system. You got good advice on that earlier in the thread too.

The other issue is how much hard drive storage you have on the laptop, and your work flow. It looks like you have about 60 gigs between your my documents and your my pictures folders. That's a lot of photos. It wasn't clear to me that you are backing up your personal photos too. Of course you should be, if you aren't already.  As long as you have ~10% of your hard drive capacity available, you should not experience slow downs that are hard drive capacity related. Adding a new internal drive is very doable, but not for someone that is uncomfortable with messing about with hard drive installations. Adding the new drive might speed up your system if its a faster hard drive, or, if you don't install a bunch of speed sapping software on the new drive.

I'm not sure I added anything to the discussion other than to suggest using crucial.com.

One other option is to look at the power management module on the laptop. You want to be sure you are using the maximum performance always plugged in setting, not the battery saving end. The battery saving is done by slowing the processor usually.

Let us know how it's going.

Good luck,

Dave

I really want to thank everyone who's stopped in and given their advice!  I was really freaking out!

After talking with my husband I'm leaning towards buying a new computer.  We don't have a "family" computer, so if I just purchase a new one we can use my current one for the family stuff.  With a son in Jr. High we really need to get one he can use to type up assignments and research projects on when needed.  The original plan was to just buy a cheap desktop for that purpose, so my full hard drive changes that a bit.

I'm going to be researching new computers now. 

Dave W:

I went to HPs site, and it appears your notebook will support up to 4 gigs of ram. I would go to crucial.com and allow the site to tell you how much RAM can be installed on your computer and consider buying the max available for your computer. You may have to let crucial install some software to let it do the check. It's ok, let them do what they have to. I would try to get to at least 2 gigs if 4 is too much. To get to the 4 gig level, you will need to remove the module(s) that are there and replace them with 2 two gig chips. That looks like it would cost about $120.

Getting rid of any background software or tasks will also speed up the system. You got good advice on that earlier in the thread too.

The other issue is how much hard drive storage you have on the laptop, and your work flow. It looks like you have about 60 gigs between your my documents and your my pictures folders. That's a lot of photos. It wasn't clear to me that you are backing up your personal photos too. Of course you should be, if you aren't already.  As long as you have ~10% of your hard drive capacity available, you should not experience slow downs that are hard drive capacity related. Adding a new internal drive is very doable, but not for someone that is uncomfortable with messing about with hard drive installations. Adding the new drive might speed up your system if its a faster hard drive, or, if you don't install a bunch of speed sapping software on the new drive.

I'm not sure I added anything to the discussion other than to suggest using crucial.com.

One other option is to look at the power management module on the laptop. You want to be sure you are using the maximum performance always plugged in setting, not the battery saving end. The battery saving is done by slowing the processor usually.

Let us know how it's going.

Good luck,

Dave

 

Lisa,  

 You're making the right decision.  Your son will love having a notebook.  After you've transferred everything to the new one, put in the recovery disks and bring it back to factory settings.  This isn't hard to do but you may need some help with updating Windows and Drivers.

Now consider Mac.