More hard drive maintenance tips

Here’s the procedure as it would be done using Windows Internet Explorer in Windows Vista:

  • Open your Internet browser.
  • Click on ‘Tools’ and select ‘Internet Options’
  • Under the General tab, in the ‘Browsing history’ section, click the ‘Delete’ button
  • In the ‘Temporary Internet Files’ section, click on the ‘Delete files’ button

You may also notice that there is another section in the same window, just below Temporary Internet Files, called ‘Cookies’. These can also be safely deleted, but before you do, let’s clarify what cookies are and what purpose they serve.

Contrary to popular perception, cookies are not applications that collect any personal information about you from your computer, track your browsing history, and so forth. Rather, they are small text files that are created when you visit a web site and create a profile of some sort. A data file, known as a ‘cookie’ is then created and stored on your computer which will allow the web site to store such things as your name, address, passwords, email address, login information, and so forth.

When you revisit that web site and see some of your profile information pre-filled in, it’s because a cookie has been retrieved from your drive. If you delete your cookies, you will have to recreate your profile information. The downside to cookies is that completing online forms with your personal information can lead to receiving unwanted solicitations for products, services, etc. You’ll have to weigh for yourself the costs/benefits of storing cookies on your computer. You can also modify the cookie settings on your computer by opening ‘Internet Options’ as described above, selecting the ‘Privacy’ tab. You can adjust the settings to anywhere within the range of accepting all cookies to blocking all cookies.

The second step is to remove temp files and old software programs that are no longer being used. These temporary files are created when you install applications, or when you use certain applications like Microsoft Word (whose AutoSave feature causes ‘temp’ files to be created, which are not always deleted upon exit).

Because these temp files can be scattered in various locations across the drive, they can be difficult to find manually. Luckily, there is a handy utility available through Control Panel that will help you locate and remove temp files, a variety of unneeded system files and software programs, and will also empty out the Recycle Bin. This will both free up disk space and help your computer to run faster. Here’s what to do in Windows Vista:

  • Click the Start button
  • Select ‘Control Panel’
  • Select ‘System and Maintenance’
  • Under ‘Administrative Tools’, click on ‘Free Up Disk Space’
  • In the Disk Cleanup Options window, you may choose ‘My files only’ or ‘Files from all users on this computer’ (if you want to remove old software applications, you must choose the latter).
  • Follow the prompts for Drive Selection and choose what files you want to remove
  • Select the More Options tab if you wish to remove unneeded software programs

Once the temp files and unneeded programs have been deleted, you can proceed to the drive maintenance utilities. As is often the case, the particular names of these drive utilities depends upon the version of Windows you are using. Until the release of Windows XP and later versions, the program designed to identify bad sectors on the drive was called Scandisk. This was readily available in the Accessories folder (Start > Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Scandisk).

When you run Scandisk, it will identify the bad sectors on the hard drive, attempt to repair them, and flag those sectors as non-writeable if they cannot be repaired. In this way, your data will be protected, as it will only be saved to reliable sectors on the drive.

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