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Maintenance Guide
Over time you may notice that your computer doesn’t run as fast or as
well as it did when you first bought it. This can be due to many
factors, the most common of which is fragmented files. As you install
and uninstall programs and files, bits and pieces of these files can get
scattered across your hard drive. Fortunately, Windows provides a tool
for defragmenting your hard drive. Running this tool, called the Disk
Defragmenter, can keep your computer in tip-top shape.
Before running the Disk Defragmenter, it is wise to run another Windows
tool, called Scandisk. Scandisk scans your hard drive for errors, and in
many cases it can fix these problems before they result in a hard drive
failure. If your computer gets a lot of use, it is wise to run both of
these tools every week or every other week.
To run Scandisk:
If any programs are running while Scandisk is trying to operate, it may
never finish the job. The easiest way to ensure that no other programs
are running is to run Scandisk from that ancient operating system known
as DOS.
1) Go to ‘Start’, ‘Shut Down’, and choose ‘Restart in MS-DOS mode’.
2) Click OK
3) When you are in DOS, you will be at the DOS prompt which will look
like:
C:\> or C:\Windows>
4) Type: scandisk /surface
5) Press the enter key on your keyboard.
6) Scandisk will run. It may take a while, so you may want to run
Scandisk before you go to bed.
7) When Scandisk is done it will ask you if you want to exit or view the
log. You want to exit, so press the X key on your keyboard.
8) When Scandisk exits, it puts you back at the DOS prompt. Type: exit
9) Windows will start.
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