MAINTENANCE
Computers are all well and good but if you don't look after them properly they wont be of much use. It is very important that you take the time to maintain your machine and its software, if you do it should work properly for a lot longer!
There are many ways to ensure the smooth running of your PC. Here are a few essentials to get you going.
GeneralGeneral Maintenance
Before we get into any technical details there are some very basic things you need to remember when using your PC.
- Ensure that all wires going in and out of the machine are safely out of the way so that no one can trip over them or catch them.
- Computers dont like dust so it is a good idea to buy (or make) some dust covers for your machine when it isn't in use.
- It doesnt really do computers any good to be continually turned off and on but we all have electricity bills! Just remember that when you have finished using the PC YOU MUST SELECT START - SHUTDOWN AND NOT JUST TURN IT OFF!!! Turning off a computer without shutting it down really messes it up, especially if it was in the middle of doing something so DONT DO IT!!!
Removing unnecessary files
Your computer can quite easily get clogged up by files that you don't really need so it's a good idea to get rid of them from time to time.
Scandisk
Sometimes the files on your machine can become corrupt or damaged in some way and cease to function properly. The only way to find out about this is to run Scandisk every so often.
Scandisk checks all of the files on your computer and the surface of the disk (this can take a while) for damage, reports it back to you and attempts to fix any problems. It is a good idea to do this to prevent the loss of your files.
Scandisk can be found under Start - Programs - Accessories - System tools - Scandisk
Defragmentor
This is probably the most useful and yet unkown system tool in Windows©.
When your computer saves files onto its hard disk it starts by putting them one after the other. When you delete files it leaves space on the disk. Your computer is programmed to start writing in the first available space on the disk and so will save in a deleted space not at the end of the disk. However, if the new file is much bigger than the empty space the computer will write part of it there then move onto the next available space.
In this way all of the files on your computer get seperated and mixed up. This means that when you try to open a file your computer has to fetch bits of it from all over your disk. This slows it down.
The Defragmentor is used to reorder the data on your disk so that all the files are complete and all in one place so that the computer can get it them in one go.
It is best to use this after removing unnecessary files as there will be big gaps on your disk.