Your Pc's hard disk holds software which
drives your PC and programs (such as Microsoft office) which you
use to create documents and files. looking after your hard disk
is essential for keeping your computer running trouble free. All
versions of windows provide basic tools to maintain and repair
files, also to make sure your hard disk is performing optimally.
To find the maintenance tools for windows 95, 98
and ME, you need to right click on the 'my computer' icon on your
desktop and select 'properties' and then 'tools'
The maintenance tools for windows 2000 and XP can
be found by double clicking on the 'my computer' icon, use the
mouse to point to the hard drive (usually c:) and right click
once, select 'properties' and then 'tools'.
Scan Disk
Scan disk is an error checking program which looks
for corrupt files and repairs them if possible. It is recommended
to run scan disk at least once a month.
De fragmentation
De fragmentation re-org anises the files on the
hard drive to make them load quicker. It may not affect the file-loading
speed, but is useful if you have deleted a lot of files.
Facts about your hard drive
Like an old vinyl record which gets scratched, files
can become corrupted through day to day usage, although it is
quite rare on modern computers. However, a virus or an interruption
in power supply can cause corruption.
Disk scanning and de fragmentation should be done
regularly, try not to wait until you have a problem. You should
run both programs at least once a month, even more often if you
create and delete lots of files.
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