This is a step by step guide to maintaining your computer

Your computer’s hard drive (hard disc,) is where all the information is held that operates your computer. Any programmes you add or remove from this drive either decreases or increases the amount of disc space available to you for the storage of data. When a programme is either installed or uninstalled, files are created by the programme to help it perform various actions. Although programmes generally try to remove all these “Temporary files,” some do not manage to remove all these files. Also, when a programme is installed or uninstalled, it leaves a gap “A fragment,” in your hard drive. While this is not detrimental to your computer on a day to day basis, continual installing and uninstalling without maintaining your computer will result in a “Fragmented hard drive.” This state will mean your computer will run slower than it might if your hard drive was not fragmented.

Window-based computers have a feature called the “recycle bin.” This feature means that when you delete a file from your computer, it will be stored in this “bin” until it is removed from the bin. This means that, if the recycle bin is not regularly emptied, it will become full and you will not be able to safely delete files from your computer.

MANUAL FILE DELETE. Before you use any disc maintenance tools, you must delete unwanted files from your hard drive. After you have deleted all unwanted work related files, you will have to go to other directories to seek and delete other files placed on your computer’s hard drive during normal operation. These files are found in the following directories. The “Temp” directory holds files generated by installing or uninstalling programmes, all these files can be removed. The “Temporary internet files” folder contains files that are put onto your computer when you surf the internet. These can be removed. Recycle bin, this is where all deleted files are stored, please make sure you no longer need these files before deleting them. Deleting files from the recycle bin is a permanent action and no files deleted from the recycle bin can be retrieved. Once you have checked the recycle bin and are sure you no longer need these files, delete them also. In the route directory of your drive, usually the C drive, there might be files that Scandisk has previously created from lost file fragments, these will be labelled with the suffix “.chk,” these can be deleted, but be careful not to delete other files from the route directory. The “Temp” and “temporary internet files” directories are found in the “Windows” directory on your hard drive. To access these directories, from the desktop, press the start button, point to programmes, point to windows explorer and then double click the “windows” directory. In that directory are directories named “Temp” and “Temporary internet files.” Select these directories and delete their contents, deleting the contents of these directories will not compromise your system. Then exit windows explorer.

From the desktop, press the start button, point to settings, click control panel, and then click “internet options. Click “delete temporary internet files,” You will be asked if you would like to delete all “off line content.” This is pages that have been automatically saved to your computer’s hard drive while you surf the internet. Check this box to have all off line content deleted along with your temporary internet files, then, press okay. Then go to “clear history.” Click this and press okay. Go to okay. Then exit control panel. Please make sure your recycle bin is empty by returning to windows explorer and verifying it is empty. To empty the recycle bin, from the desktop, click the start button, point to programmes, click windows explorer and then select recycle bin. Click the file menu and select “empty recycle bin.” Press yes and then exit windows explorer.

DISK CLEAN-UP. From the desktop, click on the start button, point to “programmes,” point to “Accessories,” then to “System tools.” Click on disc clean up. Disc clean up will then check all available drives, such as your floppy drive and then present you with a selection of drives to clean. Select the drive and then select okay. The [programme will then present you with a list of files it has found that can be safely deleted from your system. Select okay and then follow the instructions on your screen.

DISK DEFRAGMENTER. To access the disk defragmenter, from the desktop, click on the start button, point to “programmes,” point to “Accessories,” then to “System tools.” Click on disk defragmenter. A list will appear with the drives you can choose to defragment. Select your drive and press okay. Disk defragmenter will notify you when it has finished defragmenting your hard drive. You can then exit the programme, or choose another drive to defragment. Defragmentation of media such as CD roms is not possible.

SCANDISK. To access scandisk, from the desktop, click on the start button, point to “programmes,” point to “Accessories,” then to “System tools.” Click on scandisk. The programme will present you with a list of drives to scan, select the drive you wish to check for errors and press okay. Scandisk will notify you of a completed scan, giving you information about the drive scanned, bad sectors on that drive, errors encountered, and whether scandisk fixed or was unable to fix the errors. You can then choose to exit the programme or to scan another drive. Scandisk can be set to perform two types of scan, a standard scan, which checks files and folders for errors, and a thorough scan, which checks the surface of your hard drive for errors. In both cases, scandisk can be set to prompt you for action when an error is encountered, or fix the errors automatically. It must be noted that the default setting for both the standard and thorough scans are sufficient for disc maintenance, but can be customised for your particular requirements.

MAINTENANCE WIZARD. Maintenance wizard enables you to set a time when maintenance is automatically performed on your computer. This could be during the early hours, when you are not using the computer for other tasks. Maintenance wizard streamlines cleaning up, defragmenting and scanning your disc for errors into one easy step. As maintenance wizard uses the same settings as scandisk, disk defragmenter, and disc clean up, all that is needed to perform an automatic maintenance cycle is to follow these steps. From the desktop, click on the start button, point to “programmes,” point to “Accessories,” then to “System tools.” Click on maintenance wizard. The programme will present you with a selection box, select either “perform maintenance now,” or “customise each maintenance setting myself.” If you would like to customise your own maintenance settings, to select the time for automatic maintenance, alter what each programme does during the maintenance process etc, select “customise each maintenance setting myself,” and follow the instructions on your screen.