Caring for Your Computer

Is your computer running slow? Does it take a million years to boot up and another million to load a program? If your computer is a bit aging, it might be time to look at upgrading or buying a new one. On the other hand, if your computer is fairly new, the problem could lie in your computer's health.

PC Health - It Does Exist!

When you were first learning about the computer, it may have been presented to you as similar to the human body. Well, just like the human body, your computer is also susceptible to certain ailments. Amongst other symptoms, these ailments can keep your computer from shutting down properly and running fast. Fortunately, there are steps you can take to alleviate some of it's pain, and keep it running strong all year long.

Shutting Down Properly

It may sound like a no brainer, but it still warrants mention. When you decide to turn off your computer, don't just hit the power button. If you're using XP, you really should click the Start Button, and then select Shut Down and then confirm it again. When you do that, you help ensure that all programs and files currently open on your computer are closed down correctly and with minimal data loss.

Defrag Your Hard Drive

Something that the majority of computer users ignore is the importance of defragmenting their hard drives. Without going too far into the technical side of it, the idea of defragmenting is similar to having unorganized files in a file cabinet. Say you have a 13 page file in this file cabinet that you need to find. It would be an easy enough task if the 13 pages were contained in the same file folder in the cabinet. Unfortunately, the pages are scattered within the cabinet, so you have to search the majority of the folders before you find all of them. In a nutshell, that's what happening on your hard drive when you haven't defragged it in a while.

This can easily contribute to your hard drive taking forever to open a file or program. That's why you should defragment your hard drive on a regular basis. Though the time frame will vary based on how you use your computer, a good consensus is AT LEAST every month. Better yet is every week or two. Before you begin, know that when you defragment your computer, it will slow to a crawl. So before you defrag, turn off your screen saver and close any open programs or documents. Furthermore, if it's been a while since your last defrag, start it before you go to sleep, because it can take quite a while.

To Defrag Your HD:

1. Click the Start Button.
2. Select All Programs
3. Select Accessories
4. Select System Tools
5. Select Disk Defragmenter




6. When the Disk Defragmenter application comes up, look near the bottom of the window and click the Defragment button.

Shutting down properly and defragging your hard drive are two little things that can really do a lot for computer. But wait- Could there be more?
Next up is how to clean your computer from viruses, malware and ...dust?

1, Page 2 (Viruses, Malware, and ... Dust!!!)

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