Ways to improve your computer's performance

Fragmentation makes your hard disk do extra work that can slow down your computer. Removable storage devices such as USB flash drives can also become fragmented. Disk Defragmenter rearranges fragmented data so your disks and drives can work more efficiently. Disk Defragmenter runs on a schedule, but you can also analyze and defragment your disks and drives manually. To do this, follow these steps:

To defragment your hard disk

1. Open Disk Defragmenter by clicking the Start button . In the search box, type Disk Defragmenter, and then, in the list of results, click Disk Defragmenter.
2. Under Current status, select the disk you want to defragment.
3. To determine if the disk needs to be defragmented or not, click Analyze disk.  If you're prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.

Once Windows is finished analyzing the disk, you can check the percentage of fragmentation on the disk in the Last Run column. If the number is above 10%, you should defragment the disk.

4. Click Defragment disk.  If you're prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.

Disk Defragmenter might take from several minutes to a few hours to finish, depending on the size and degree of fragmentation of your hard disk. You can still use your computer during the defragmentation process.

Hard Drive Failure: Warnings and Solutions

 

Sooner or later, all hard drives crash. It is only a matter of when. When it happens, the degree of sweat and tears you experience is directly related to how prepared you were for it to begin with. Backing up your data is important. I even have two computers which are set up almost identically so that if the drive on one of my machines dies, I don’t lose any worktime or data. Preparation is the best medicine, but this stuff happens anyway.

Warning Signs

In some cases, you start to see signs of a problem before the drive up and dies on you. Early warning signs include:

1. Computer freezes often. When it happens, the mouse cursor is unmovable and keyboard input is ignored. Nothing works and a restart is required to recover the computer.
2. Files Mysterious disappearing.
3. Frequent lock-up during booting. I say “frequent” because all computers will freeze every now and then and it doesn’t necessarily mean the drive is failing. You’re looking for a pattern here.
4. File access mysteriously slows to a turtle’s pace. Saving files or open files simply takes forever.

These are typical warning signs of a pending drive failure. When you start to see a noticeable increase in these patterns, backing up your data needs to take top priority. Otherwise you really are playing Russian roulette with your hard drive.

Signs of Real Failure

When the drive actually fails, it is a mechanical failure. Many times you will actually hear the drive making strange metallic noises. This is the read/write head thrashing around aimlessly and indicates failure. When your system has a crashed hard drive, it will not be able to boot. You may even get a blue screen of death.

Hard drive failure is a black and white thing. If the drive is working at all, you have a drive which is about to fail and is exhibiting the above warning signs in varying degrees. Once actual failure occurs, it just doesn’t work.

Diagnostics

The first thing to do is run through some inspection of the computer to see if this is indeed a drive failure. Here is a basic checklist. Now, if the PC was working fine and then just stopped working, chances are these items are not the case.

1. Check to ensure the power cable is properly connected to the drive.
2. Check to be sure the data cable is properly connected to the drive.
3. If it is an IDE drive, ensure the ribbon cable is aligned properly. Red edge of the cable is aligned with Pin 1 of the connector on the drive. Pin 1 is closest to the power plug, typically.
4. Master/slave assignment is correctly set if this is an IDE drive.

Once the physical connections have been verified, it’s good to see if the computer can even see the drive at all. If this is an IDE drive, go into the computer’s BIOS and have it auto-detect the drive. If it can detect it, then we know we have a solid connection. It doesn’t mean the drive is good, just that the BIOS can see it.

Using a bootable diskette for your anti-virus program, reboot and run a scan on the drive. It will scan the drive, including the boot partition, for viruses. If it finds anything, let it do it’s job. If it is able to successfully scan the drive at all, the drive is at least still working.

Use a third-party disk management program or simply FDISK to view the partitions on the drive. If no active partitions are found, then you know the partitions are screwed up. Unfortunately, that would be bad news. You can try a data recovery utility (see below) to recover the data. Otherwise, you will need to re-partition the drive and lose your data in the process.

You may want to run a ScanDisk or Check Disk on the drive. This is best if the drive is functioning partially. If you have a full mechanical failure, nothing will work. If some data is retrievable but others are not, then we have a partial failure. Try running Scandisk or Check Disk to scan the drive. Allow it to perform a full scan and fix anything it finds.

Best practices to protect against viruses, spyware, adware, malware, worms and Trojan horses

Unbeknownst to you, malicious programs can infiltrate your computer when you open an email attachment, visit certain websites, download a game, etc. To protect yourself from such attacks, it is best to educate yourself and avoid these programs all together. Check out our checklist below to learn the best practices for protecting your computer against intruders.

• Don't download files from unknown sources, including from your email or the web.
• Scan all new files with virus-scanning software before opening.
• Don't download an attachment (e.g., pictures, games, electronic greetings) unless it's from someone you know.
• Start by running anti-spyware software on a regular basis to catch any programs that may have infected your computer. After the software removes the spyware it finds, restart your computer and scan it again to make sure all spyware was deleted. Some spyware programs can be difficult to remove, so it might take more than one try.
• Be careful when downloading free or peer-to-peer files, especially music files and media sharing programs. Read the licensing agreements to understand exactly what you're downloading. Many popular applications include spyware components, and some applications won't work without those components.
• Protect your computer with a firewall, especially if you use a broadband internet connection.
• Use a trusted internet provider.
• Use antivirus software to catch viruses, worms and Trojan horses before they can do any damage.
• Don't download any programs from websites you don't trust.
• Adjust your browser's security settings to provide at least a medium level of security. A lower setting makes it easier for malware to access your computer.
• ActiveX controls are prone to spyware and other malware, so don't approve the installation of any ActiveX controls you haven't already requested.