Help getting the computer running smooth again, please

[Kirbysreturn]

Hey everyone. This is my first time on the forums so please excuse me If I'm in the wrong place.
I've got a desktop that my family bought in '02 or '03 -an eMachine running Windows XP Home Edition Ver 2002 SP2
I've run defrags, disk cleanups,(AVG) virus scans (which take over two hours, by the way) in attempts to get it as fast as it once was.
The real issue is the internet. It's slow. It's not the ISP because I've run speedtests on both my new laptop(which I'm using now and is incredibly fast) and the eMachine - they're getting the same results.

The eMachine is incredibly cluttered and has three profiles with rows of icons on the desktops.
Would it be in my best in interest to format the C drive and start fresh? I've got the system recovery CD right here. I'd probably need walking through that because I've never done that before.

The (relevant)specs of the system are as follows:
AMD Athlon 64 Processor 3500+ 2.21 GHz
2.37 GB RAM
144GB harddrive - 74.1 GB remaining
and, like I said, the OS is Win XP Home Edition ver2002 SP2

It's not bad but it's not great. Nonetheless, it should be faster than it is.
I'd appreciate anything that'll get it moving again.

[classicsoftware]

Yes, your best be is to wipe it out and start again. Windows will always run faster. Before you do, download and burn to a CD:

The drivers for your Ethernet card and motherboard.
The installer for your AV program

[Kirbysreturn]

Before you do, download and burn to a CD:

The drivers for your Ethernet card and motherboard.
The installer for your AV program

Gotcha. Thanks a lot. I don't think I would have got my ethernet and motherboard drivers saved if you wouldn't have said so. that's gonna save me a lot of trouble

[mjc]

And while you are burning things...take the time to bakup an data you want saved (pics, songs, documents, etc...)

[Fruss Tray Ted]

And, and, and, :)

After backing up all drivers and data to disks or media like flash drives or external storage drives, I would consider making 2 partitions on the hard drive so when you need to do it again, you won`t have to go through all the trouble of backing up all the drivers and data over again as they will be on the second, data only partition.

A good sized partition to put XPHome is in the vicinity of 15 to 25 gigs (leave the rest for data). When you do a system scan with AVG and other malware removal softwares, it will be w-a-y faster. Like as in done in 1/2 hour.

Keep posting here, we can walk you through all of it as you progress. You will also walk away when done actually knowing something about PC`s and you`ll have a good feeling of accomplishment. :cool:

Look at all of the hardware you will need drivers for before starting. Make sure you have all needed disks or software downloaded from the www. Printers, faxes, video, sound, all-of-it. Be sure. Double check. There`s nothing more annoying than finding out the hard way that you have something obsolete where you cannot find the drivers for it and you could have recovered them prior to formatting.

[mjc]

FTT...the problem is the factory restore disk probably won't allow partitioning like that.

It's a good idea, but it may need to be done after the restore, before anything else. Use something to shrink the factory restore's partition then use the empty space to do that...

[Kirbysreturn]

I left for a few hours but thanks for all the great suggestions. I'll look into the partition stuff - never thought to do it but I can see how that'll be useful