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COMPUTER MAINTENANCE |
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Regular Maintenance for your PC |
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Your investment in a computer system is usually quite significant. Like a vehicle you need to perform regularly scheduled maintenance to ensure optimum performance. Your maintenance regime should include:
Confirm that good backups are being done. Do you have a backup procedure in place? If not, you may be sorry one day to discover your hard drive has died, Windows has become hopelessly corrupt or that someone has accidentally deleted an important file you were working on. It is not a matter of "if" your hard drive will one day fail, it is a matter of "when". The likelihood that your hard drive will crash increases exponentially in relation to the value and importance of the data on the drive!
You should establish a backup procedure using a Zip Drive, CD Burner, another hard drive or other backup method. Then make sure you back up regularly. Remember to verify the backups by actually restoring a sample file or folder.
.Empty the Recycle Bin. Many users overlook the simple but important step of actually emptying the Recycle Bin.
Delete .tmp files. Before running ScanDisk and Defragmenter, delete all *.tmp files that have been created prior to the current day. Tmp files are created during normal use of your computer and are temporary files your system uses while you are working. However, they serve no purposes to you if your system crashes - so you might as well remove them periodically and save yourself some space!
Delete files that begin with a tilde. When cleaning the system of garbage files, you might also like to check for any files beginning with a tilde (~).
Delete old .zip files. When you download files, they are often in a zipped format. Once you have unzipped the file, it is easy to forget to delete them. Over time, they can add up to a lot.
Use a can of air, and blow the dust and debris out of keyboards every now and then. Since the pressure is much higher with canned air, don't direct the air at an unsecured fan. Try using a pencil erasure to keep the fan from turning while you clean out the power supply and CPU. Blow out the power supply from the inside out first, or you’ll get tons of dust blown into the computer. Take your computer outside or somewhere where all the dust being blown out of the computer won't cause a problem.
For braver souls, open up your computer case. UNPLUG your computer from the wall first and then make sure you ground yourself (by wearing a proper ground strap - they are pretty inexpensive and you can get one at any computer store). With the case off, gently push each of the adapter cards inside to make sure it is properly "seated". Heating and cooling of your computer can cause expansion cards, CPU, and memory to work their way out of their sockets. |
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