Simple Computer Tune-up: Speed Up Your PC- P16 ppt

Figure 6-17: Emptying the Recycle Bin Check for Hard Drive Errors Data in hard drives can become corrupt, such as from power surges and improper shutdowns, which can cause disk errors. Typically, these are errors that won’t be noticeable to the PC user; therefore you should perform a hard drive scan at least once a month. Here is how to check your hard drive for errors (and fix it) using Windows XP: 1. Open My Computer. 2. Right-click the disk you would like to check (for instance, the C drive) and click Properties. Figure 6-18 shows an example. Figure 6-18: Accessing drive properties Chapter 6: Other Ways to Optimize Your PC 57 11_068557 ch06.qxp 12/13/06 6:13 PM Page 57 Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark. 3. Click the Tools tab. 4. Click Check Now , as seen in Figure 6-19, under the Error-checking section. Figure 6-19: Accessing the Check Disk utility 5. It’s recommended to mark both check disk options, Automatically Fix File System Errors and Scan for and Attempt Recovery of Bad Sectors, to ensure any disk errors are properly addressed. See Figure 6-20 for an example. Figure 6-20: Marking the Check Disk options 6. Click Start. If the hard drive is currently in use, which will likely be the case, a pop-up message will appear, such as Figure 6-21 shows. Click Yes to schedule the scan for the next restart, or to cancel the scan, click No. 58 Part II • Optimizing Your PC 11_068557 ch06.qxp 12/13/06 6:13 PM Page 58 Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark. Figure 6-21: Pop-up message Defragment the Hard Drive Defragmenting your hard drive optimizes it by reorganizing files that are scattered around the disk drive. Moving this information into contiguous clusters allows for faster retrieval of files and results in an increase of overall system performance. Fragmentation worsens the more you install, uninstall, move, and delete files on your hard drive. However, hard drive fragmentation is common and occurs naturally. The amount of time that defragmentation takes depends on several factors, including the following: • Amount of fragmentation • Size of the hard drive • Number and size of files on the hard drive • Performance of your PC You can get an idea of the amount of fragmented files and folders before performing a defragmentation by analyzing the hard drive first. This allows you to better decide whether you would benefit from defragmenting the hard drive. Note In order to analyze or defragment your hard drive your PC has to be logged on a Windows account with administrative privileges. If you are not sure whether you are, you can check: 1. Open the Control Panel, as seen in Figure 6-22. continued Chapter 6: Other Ways to Optimize Your PC 59 11_068557 ch06.qxp 12/13/06 6:13 PM Page 59 Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark. continued Figure 6-22: Opening the Control Panel If the Start menu is in classic look, the Control Panel is under Settings on the menu. 2. Open User Accounts, as Figure 6-23 shows when in cate- gory view. Figure 6-23: Opening the User Accounts utility 60 Part II • Optimizing Your PC 11_068557 ch06.qxp 12/13/06 6:13 PM Page 60 Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark. 3. Look for your user account and see if it belongs to the administrators group, such as identified in Figure 6-24. Figure 6-24: Checking for administrative privileges Before performing the defragmentation you should first analyze the hard drive to get a feeling of the amount of fragmented files and folders on your hard drive. Here is how to analyze your hard drive using Windows XP: 1. Open Disk Defragmenter, which can be accessed by brows- ing to the following path on your Start menu: • Start • Programs (or All Programs) • Accessories • System Tools Then click Disk Defragmenter, as shown in Figure 6-25. 2. Click Analyze, as shown in Figure 6-26. Chapter 6: Other Ways to Optimize Your PC 61 11_068557 ch06.qxp 12/13/06 6:13 PM Page 61 Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark. . and folders on your hard drive. Here is how to analyze your hard drive using Windows XP: 1. Open Disk Defragmenter, which can be accessed by brows- ing to the following path on your Start menu: •. the case, a pop -up message will appear, such as Figure 6-21 shows. Click Yes to schedule the scan for the next restart, or to cancel the scan, click No. 58 Part II • Optimizing Your PC 11_068557. Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark. Figure 6-21: Pop -up message Defragment the Hard Drive Defragmenting your hard drive optimizes it by reorganizing files that are scattered around