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Written by Bonnie Weglarz
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Monday, 14 November 2005 |
Last month, computer expert Bonnie Weglarz wrote about how to minimize disk failure, by following some fairly simple procedures. This month, Bonnie breaks those tasks down into weekly, monthly and semi annual tasks. To keep your own computer maintenance on track, it might be a good idea to print off this article and keep in view your computer as a reminder.
Weekly tasks
Check your Anti-Virus software is updated correctly
- It should have been set to auto-update, but if the definition date is a week old – manually update
Perform a Virus Scan of your entire hard drive
- If your software finds viruses, the infected files should automatically be cleansed, be quarantined or be deleted.
Manually update and scan your hard drive using your Anti-Spyware and Anti-Adware program
- Processes for using Spybot – Search and Destroy as well as Lavasoft Ad-Aware involved checking for program updates, downloading any updates, checking your hard drive against the known Spyware, Adware or other Malware occurrences, deleting any occurrences and immunizing your system from further infections.
Backup the data on your hard drive and test to see the backup copy is valid
- Religiously performing a backup copy of your data is useless if you find the data missing or corrupt when you need to restore it. Test the restore process to an isolated portion of your hard drive and open a few files to ensure the data is present and useful.
Clean the dust
- Clean any dust or dirt from around your computer – the dust can clog the cooling fans causing your computer to overheat and stop working.
Quarterly or Semi-Annual tasks
Perform these tasks quarterly if you are a business user or a “power” home user; semi-annually if you’re a casual user.
Perform a Disk Cleanup
- Cleanup unwanted files from your hard drive using “Disk Cleanup”
- Disk Cleanup located temporary files, temporary internet files, files in your recycle bin as well as downloaded program files
- It asks if you want to delete them to free up disk space
Perform a thorough Scan Disk
- Checks the physical health of your hard drive and locks any damaged areas so they can’t be used.
- It also checks the integrity of your files and folders and can be set to automatically fix the problems it can fix.
Defragment your hard drive
- Disk defragmenting reorganizes the files on your hard drive so that the clusters holding the sections of any file are as close together as they can be.
- When the sections of each file are close together, your PC performance improves
Windows Updates
- Download and install “critical” system updates/patches or service packs to your Windows operating system
- You’ll need an Internet connect and can usually find the shortcut to the program after pressing the START button.
- If you have viruses, spyware or adware on your hard drive, the service pack download will abort
Update other applications
- Eg – Microsoft Office
- The updates or patches are also downloaded from the software vendors website
Semi-Annual or Annual Maintenance Tune-Up
This is more in depth maintenance and may be something you ask a reputable technician to perform. Its similar to getting a tune-up for your car or your furnace and really can extend the life of your computer
Thoroughly clean your computer system
- Vacuum inside and outside the computer, inside your printer, on the vents of your monitor
- Wipe your monitor display or the glass plate on your scanner with anti-static video display cleaner
- Use isopropyl alcohol and cotton swabs to clean your keyboard or your mouse.
Check the Computer Boot Process
- Check the services or applications that are started when your computer is turned on.
- The more programs loaded at startup, the slower the startup, the less processing power or memory you have for the programs you use regularly and the slower the shutdown can be.
Update the Device Drivers
- Device drivers are programs required by the components of your computer system.
- Just like updates to your Windows program are released, manufacturers of the computer components release updates
- These could be for the video card that works with your monitor, the network card to connect to other computers or the Internet or your sound card for your speaker system.
Check and reseat your internal expansion cards
- Network cards, video cards, sound cards or other cards can become loose especially if you move your computer around. Remove each card, vacuum any dust from in and around the slot, and reseat it carefully
For any other issues, check your trouble log (which of course you’ve been keeping to remind of system blips, problems and questions!)
Bonnie Weglarz, Bon & Gerry's Computer Services
| Bon & Gerry's Computer Services was founded in 2001 and has been providing on-site computer maintenance and support services to small offices and home users throughout the Greater Toronto Area. Both partners are experienced computer specialists in the corporate and residential environments, possess Microsoft Certified Professional status together with prior university degrees. |
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Collage pictures are by www.fotosearch.com.
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