Maintain Your PC

WinY2K/XP
Maintaining your PC’s file system is one of the most important routines you will carry out on your PC. A lack of maintenance will create several undesirable effects on your PC. The most noticeable would be the total lack of performance . The speed in which your CPU processes information will be greatly reduced, seek time on your hard drive will be greatly extended. As well it will be easier to detect and locate any problems occurring on your PC or with your programs if you have a properly maintained computer.

At the office, there is a little elf that runs around fixing computers. At home, you are the little elf. Keeping your PC running smoothly is on your shoulders. In this tutorial you will learn how to deal with basic system maintenance. The tutorial uses more words than there is actual work so don't be afraid.

Some Of The System Maintenance Routines Are, And In Order:

Preliminary Moves:

1. Right click on Start and click on Explore.
2. WinXP   - Empty C:\Windows\Temporary Internet Files folder. 
WinY2K - Empty C:\Winnt\Temporary Internet Files folder in 
3. WinXP   - Empty C:\Windows\Temp folder.
WinY2K - Empty C:\Winnt\Temp folder.
4. Clean out any file folder and program folder with unwanted or improperly placed files. (Get to know your Explorer and where certain programs store there cache)
5. Empty the Recycle Bin.
6. Now to check what programs are running in the background. Some programs will stop and restart your Defrag. Windows XP and Windows ME/Y2K don't seem to be affected by running programs like Windows 95/98 were. Windows XP/Y2k/ME will restart the Defragmenter program every time due to running programs such as Screen Savers, active desktop components like "Screen Shots Desktop". Spyware will also affect your maintenance routines. (Spyware/Scumware is another story.) 
On your keyboard, depress and hold the Ctrl+Alt keys and tap the Delete key one time. Windows Task Manager dialog box appears. Click on the Applications tab to see what is presently running. Highlight a running program in the window and click the End Task button. When this window is empty, click the "X" in the top right corner to close the Windows Task Manager.
7. You are now ready to run the Scandisk and/or Defragmenter.
8. Left click on Start, point at Programs, point at Accessories, point at System Tools and left click on Defragmenter or Scandisk. (depending on which one you want to perform)
9. The order of doing these tasks would be Scandisk then Defragmenter. It has been suggested by other tech sites that a scandisk should be run before a Defrag if you plan to do them both.
10. The panels below show how to setup the options of these maintenance programs.

Scandisk

1. Double click on the, "My Computer" icon on your desktop.
2. Right click on the drive you wish to run Scandisk on and left click on "Properties".
3. Click on the "Tools" tab and in the Error-checking section, click on the, "Check Now" button
Here is what you will be viewing. 
Note:
Since WinY2K/XP Scandisk is much faster, put a check in both boxes as I have done here.
(I have multiple drives on my system. I have Windows XP loaded on E: drive.
Your drive letter will be different than mine most likely.)


4.

When you click on the "Start" button, an information box will appear. I'll let the box speak for its self.

Click the, "Yes" button and Restart your computer to perform the task.
Note:
Unlike Windows98, these Error-checking settings will not be saved. You will have to set the checkmarks each time you perform Scandisk.

 

Disk Defragmenter

What the Defrag does is it creates a contiguous file structure. This means it rearranges all the files and programs so that your files are found faster and your programs start faster. Rearranging your programs is based on your usage over a period of 90 days. The system keeps a log of used programs and the frequency in which they were used. Use a program a lot and it gets moved to a position where it can load faster.

The graphics below show how a Fragmented file system looks compared to a contiguous file system.
Lets say you open up your favourite word processing program and you request your document file. Looking at the "Fragmented" graphic, the file, for example is the red one in the bottom right hand corner. Your hard drive has to read all the file system to get to it. The white areas are where files have been removed. Your hard drive still tries to read them but nothing there. It goes on to the next cluster and the next stumbling along the way on the empty clusters until it reaches all the way down to the requested file. Way at the other end of the file system.

The Contiguous graphic shows you where it ended up after a defrag. A lot less file system to go through and the hard drive had an easier time getting there ta-boot! Less wear and tear on the hard drive and a reduced seek time.

Fragmented

Contiguous


To run Disk Defragmenter, you have to shut down running programs.
Please refer to step 6.

1. Click on Start,Programs,Accessories,System Tools,Defragmenter.
2.

To save space I have started my Defragmenter and captured the Disk Defragmenter window in operation. Here's what we're looking at.

  1. As I stated earlier, I run a multiple partitioned hard drive so please disregard all the different drive letters in the picture. You are probably running a single drive so you would be looking for the Volume (C:).

  2. Highlight the drive you wish to defrag by a single left click and click on the, "Defragment" button. 

  3. The top window shows what the analyzer found. (Defragmented files)

  4. The bottom window shows you what it is doing. What improvements in file structure are being made currently.

  5. The are second from the bottom of the panel shows you a Legend of what is going on with the colours.

  6. The bottom shows you the progress of the Defragmenter on your defragging drive.

 
3. Click on the OK button when you have finished defragging the drive(s).
4. I like to re-Start my machine after I have completed my defragmenting.

One question I get asked all the time is, "How often do I need to do this stuff?"

Answer: Depending on your usage!

  1. Before you install a program, Do a defrag.

  2. If you uninstall a program, do a defrag.

  3. If you are going to get into a burning session with your CD-Burner, Do a defrag.

  4. If you delete a lot of files such as MP3 music files after you have burned them onto a CD-ROM, do a defrag.

  5. If you haven't performed a defrag in over a week and it's dinner time, do a defrag

  6. If you haven't performed a scandisk in a while, (more than a week) do a scandisk.

  7. If you seem to have to do workarounds and your system is just misbehaving in general, and a re-boot doesn't seem to fix it, do a scandisk.

Completing these tasks on a regular basis will ensure a much
better experience with your computer.

Hope you are having fun,

Beemer’s Tutorials...

Beemer's Windows Tips

Go To BeemerWorld

For information on health, wealth building and personal development, click here.