Recommended Routine PC Maintenance

Disk Cleanup Scan Disk Disk Defragmenter

Disk Cleanup

Performing a periodic disk cleanup on your hard drive can recover drive space and help your pc work more efficiently.

Windows 98 Users

Click Start and Programs

Point to Accessories and System Tools, then click Disk Cleanup

Select the drive you want to clean and click OK

Windows XP Users

Click Start and All Programs

Point to Accessories and System Tools, then click Disk Cleanup

Select the drive you want to clean and click OK

Disk Cleanup may take a few moments to determine what your system doesn't need.
The Disk Cleanup dialog box then appears with the maximum amount of space you can recover.
A scrollable window lets you view the files and choose whether to keep any of the files. When ready, click OK.

Disk Cleanup will not delete anything that looks like a user created file. Therefore you may need to periodically browse your My Documents folder and delete outdated documents, large graphic, video or music files you no longer want.

Scan Disk

Scan your hard drive for errors using the Scan Disk feature at least monthly.

Windows 98 Users

Click Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools, then Scan Disk.

Select the desired drive and choose either a Standard or Thorough test. (A thorough check takes more time but also checks disk surfaces for physical problems in addition to digital problems).

Check the "Automatically Fix Errors" check box.

Click the Start button.

Windows XP Users

Click Start, then My Computer, OR Double-click the My Computer icon on the desk-top.

Right-click the drive you want to check, then click Properties

Click the Tools tab in the dialog box that appears.

Click the "Check Now" button in the Error Checking section.

Select "Automatically Fix File System Errors" and "Scan For And Attempt Recovery Of Bad Sectors" check boxes.

Click Start button.

ScanDisk checks the disk platters for defects and also looks for lost clusters that are sometimes created when a program aborts.

ScanDisk can be used to check for errors on the following types of drives:
       Hard drives
       DoubleSpace drives
       Floppy disk drives
       RAM drives
       Memory cards

Disk Defragmenter

As your computer uses files, overtime, parts of a single file can become scattered in multiple locations on the hard drive. This can slow down the performance of your computer. Therefore, it is recommended that you periodically run Disk Defragmenter to improve the performance of your pc.

Windows 98 Users

Click Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools, then Disk Defragmenter.

Choose a drive to defragment, then click the Defragment button.

If you want to see a graphical display of the systems status, click the "Show Details" button.

Make sure all other applications are closed before running disk defragmenter.

Windows XP Users

Click Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, then Disk Defragmenter.

In the Dialog box, click on the drive you wish to Defragment.

Click the Analyze button. Windows will examine the drive to determine if you need to defrag at that time.

If you wish to continue, click the Defragment button.

Disk defragmenter is a computer program designed to increase access speed (and sometimes increase the amount of usable space) by rearranging files stored on a disk to occupy contiguous storage locations.
Depending upon the size of your hard drive, the speed of your computer, and how often you run disk defragmenter, it takes a few hours to several hours. If you have never used the defragmenter tool you may want to let it run overnight as it may take several hours to complete.