Defragmenting:

Why is defragmenting and why sould I do it?

When files are written to a hard drive they are written in pieces called fragments. These fragments are scattered all over the hard drive. To reinforce this point lets say you were going to build a model. All the pieces are scattered throughout your house, it would take longer to build the model than if they all were together in the box. fragmented files decrease the performance of your PC becuase it has to search the entire hard drive for these fragments.

How do I defragment my computer?

Follow the these steps:

1. Click on the "Start" button.

2. Click on "All Programs".

3. Move your mouse to "Accessories", then to "System Tools".

4. Then highlight "Defragment " and click.

5. Then at the bottom  you will see two "Analyze or "defragment". Click the "Analyze" Button.

6. It will analyze your hard drive then log a message that either:"This volume does not need to be Defragmented "or "This volumes needs to be defragmented".

7. If it requires it then follow through with the defragmenting  process and wait.

Vacuum Out Your PC

Why is this so important?

You Computer uses fans to draw in air flow to cool the components in the case. Every component in that computer case generates heat. The fans do a great job of maintaining temperature in the case but they also do a great job of drawing in dust and pet dander into the case. The dust coats the compunents and insulates them and can lead to component failure, blue screens and lock ups.

Things to remember :

Compressed Air can be used on the CPU heatsink to remove dust from the fins.

Always unplug the power cord when working  inside the case. After unplugging push the power the power button for 10 seconds to discharge any residual energy. 

Back up your Data !

The answer to why is obvious. If you are a business owner loss of your data can be catastophic. You could lose tax info, contact lists or business receipts. Many people realize this way too late and the damage is done.  Many optical drives on your PC's are bundled with programs like Nero. In Windows XP you can even copy and paste to a CD or DVD. Your backup habits are determined by the frequency of data you load on your computer. I say no more than 1 month should pass without a data back-up limiting you losses.