Maintaining Your Hard Disks

The better you treat your hard disks, the better performance they give you and the longer they last - with any luck. This section details the steps you can take to keep your disks in good order.

Defragmenting Your Disks

Data is stored on your hard disk in physical areas called sectors that are mapped into logical areas called clusters. Each cluster contains a relatively small amount of information so that Windows can use the clusters efficiently. As a result, most files occupy more than one cluster. These clusters can be located just about anywhere on the partition of the drive that contains the volume. Ideally, all the data in a file is stored in contiguous clusters, so that the hard disk’s heads can read the data without having to move too far. The further the hard disk’s actuator arm has to move to allow the heads to read the clusters that make up the file, the slower the file is to load. When files are stored in widely spread-out clusters, the volume is said to be fragmented. To improve disk performance, you defragment or defrag it using a disk defragmenter or defragger. A defragmenter rearranges the data on the disk so that each file occupies contiguous clusters wherever possible. Windows Vista includes a disk defragmenter called “Disk Defragmenter” that’s adequate for most home and small-business purposes. You can also buy third-party disk defragmenters that have extra capabilities.

Another Type of Performance Improvement

Related to defragmenters but more specialized are tools such as the Microsoft Office optimizer, which defragments a specific set of files and arranges them in a location on the hard drive that the disk heads can quickly access. Depending on how fragmented a volume is, and how big it is, defragmentation can take anything from a few minutes to a few hours. You can work on your computer while defragmentation is going on, but you’ll find the computer responding more slowly than usual, and any files that you create, move, or copy may slow down the defragmentation process. Because of this, the best time to defragment a volume is when you’re not using your computer. For this reason, Windows comes set to defragment your hard disk automatically in the early hours of the morning one day a week. This works well if you leave your computer running, but if you switch it off at night, you may do better to defragment your disk manually when you’re going to leave your computer for a few hours. You can start Disk Defragmenter in several ways. Here are the two easiest ways:

• Choose Start All Programs Accessories System Tools Disk Defragmenter, and then authenticate yourself to User Account Control.

• Choose Start Computer, right-click any hard disk icon it doesn’t matter which, and then choose Properties from the context menu. In the Properties dialog box, click the Tools tab, click the Defragment Now button, and then authenticate yourself to User Account Control.

Defragmenting the Disk Immediately

To defragment the hard disk now, click the Defragment Now button. Disk Defragmenter starts defragmenting your hard disks. For best effect, leave your computer now so you don’t slow down the defragmentation process. If Disk Defragmenter is still running when you return, you can click the Cancel Defragmentation button to end the defragmentation.

How Disk Defragmenter in Windows Vista Is Different than Disk Defragmenter in Windows XP

If you’ve used Disk Defragmenter in Windows XP, you’ll notice several major differences in Disk Defragmenter in Windows Vista:

• Disk Defragmenter comes set to run on a schedule.

• When you run Disk Defragmenter, it defragments all your hard disks. You can’t tell it to defragment one disk but not another.

• Disk Defragmenter no longer lets you analyze a disk and get a report about how fragmented it is and which files are suffering particularly badly. Instead, you simply set it running and let it do its job.

• Disk Defragmenter no longer gives you a readout of its progress. All you get is the laconic message “Defragmenting hard disks… This may take from a few minutes to a few hours.”

Changing the Defragmentation Schedule

If you want to run Disk Defragmenter on a schedule, select the Run on a Schedule check box in the Disk Defragmenter dialog box. The readout shows the details of the schedule - for example, “Run at 1:00 AMevery Wednesday” - and details of the last run and the next run. To modify the schedule, click the Modify Schedule button, and then choose settings in the Disk Defragmenter: Modify Schedule dialog box . Early in the morning is a good time for defragmentation if you leave your computer running; if you switch your computer off at night, choose, instead, a time when you normally will be busy away from your computer but the computer will be on.

Cleaning Up Your Disks with Disk Cleanup

Most Windows programs create temporary files that they use to store information temporarily when you’re running them. Some programs remember to get rid of these files when you exit them. Others forget. And if your computer loses power or crashes, even the well-behaved programs don’t have a chance to get rid of temporary files. Windows’ Disk Cleanup feature provides an effective way to remove from local drives not only these temporary files but also temporary Internet files, downloaded program files, offline web pages, and the contents of the Recycle Bin. Disk Cleanup doesn’t work on network drives. A standard user can clean up their own user account, and an administrator can clean up system-wide items as well.

Cleaning Up Your Own User Account

To clean up your own user account using Disk Cleanup, follow these steps:

1. Close all programs you’re running. This step is optional, but it’s usually a good idea.

2. Choose Start All Programs Accessories System Tools Disk Cleanup. Windows displays the Disk Cleanup Options dialog box, as shown here, asking which files you want to clean up:

3. Click the My Files Only button if you want to clean up your own files. You’ll probably want to start by cleaning up your own files, so this section shows you this path first. If you’re an administrator and want to clean up everyone’s files, click the Files from All Users on This Computer button, and follow the path in the next section.

Another Way to Launch Disk Cleanup

You can also launch Disk Cleanup by following these steps:

1. Choose Start Computer. Windows displays a Computer window.

2. Right-click the icon for the hard disk you want to clean up, and then choose Properties from the context menu. Windows displays the Local Disk Properties dialog box for that disk.

3. On the General page, click the Disk Cleanup button. Windows displays the Disk Cleanup Options dialog box. When you launch Disk Cleanup this way, Windows doesn’t display the Select Drive dialog box, because you’ve already told it which drive you want to clean up.

4.If your computer has multiple hard disk drives, Disk Cleanup displays the Disk Cleanup: Drive Selection dialog box, as shown here. If your computer has only one hard disk drive, Disk Cleanup doesn’t need to ask you which disk to clean up.

5. Select the disk in the Drives drop-down list, and then click the OK button. Disk Cleanup examines the disk, and then displays the Disk Cleanup dialog box for that disk.

6.Select the check box for each item you want to delete. Here is an explanation of the items.

Downloaded Program Files ActiveX controls and Java applets downloaded by Internet Explorer so that it could display pages that needed them. If you delete these files, Internet Explorer may need to download the controls and applets again when you next access pages that need them, which may slow down your browsing a bit. You can click the View Files button to make Windows display an Explorer window containing the files.

Temporary Internet Files These files are the components of web pages that Internet Explorer has downloaded and has stored on your hard drive so that it can retrieve them quickly when you access the same sites again. Deleting these files means that Internet Explorer will need to download them again the next time you access one of the sites, which will slow down your browsing. Again, you can click the View Files button to have Windows display an Explorer window containing these files - but be warned that there are usually thousands of them, and that the format in which they appear is less than informative.

computer is a fair enough idea, but you probably don’t want to disable it on a notebook computer. Your computer’s hibernation file is the same size as the computer’s RAM when the computer hibernates, it writes the contents of RAM to disk to preserve it, so you can recover a fair amount of disk space by deleting the hibernation file.

Microsoft Office Temporary Files Select this check box to delete any temporary data files or log files left behind by the Microsoft Office applications.

Offline Web Pages This item appears only if you use offline favorites in Internet Explorer. These files hold the information for the cached copies of your offline favorites. If you use offline favorites extensively, these files may take up a lot of space. If you delete these files, you won’t be able to view your offline favorites until you synchronize them again - and synchronizing them will probably reclaim most of the disk space that deleting these files freed up.

Recycle Bin These files are the contents of the Recycle Bin. As usual, make sure that you want to get rid of these files before you tell Disk Cleanup to delete them. You can click the View Files button to have Windows display an Explorer window showing the contents of the Recycle Bin.

Temporary Remote Desktop Files These files are temporary picture files used to display information more quickly when you’re using Remote Desktop Connection. You can safely get rid of them, but your subsequent Remote Desktop Connection sessions may run a bit more slowly.

Temporary Files These files are temporary storage files that should have been deleted by the program that created them. You can delete with impunity any temporary files that aren’t currently being used. Disk Cleanup leaves alone any temporary files still in use.

Thumbnails Select this check box to make Windows delete the thumbnail images it maintains of your picture files. Windows will then recreate the thumbnails as needed when you open each folder containing picture files, but displaying the thumbnails will take longer. Unless you’re desperate for disk space, you’ll probably find it easier to keep the thumbnail files.

Per User Queued Windows Error Reporting Files Select this check box to make Windows delete the error-report files that are in the queue for reporting. Normally, you’ll want to keep these files until they’ve been reported.

Per User Archived Windows Error Reporting Files Select this check box to make Windows delete the error-report files it keeps. Normally, these files take up only a minimal amount of space, but you might as well get rid of them unless you need to be able to track back through problems your computer is experiencing.

7. Click the OK button. Windows displays a Disk Cleanup dialog box confirming that you want to get rid of the files, as shown here.

8. Click the Delete Files button. Windows closes the Disk Cleanup dialog box and disposes of the items you chose.

Cleaning Up System-wide Items

Depending on what you chose to delete, you may have been able to reclaim a useful amount of disk space by deleting items in your own user account. For a full cleanup, run Disk Cleanup again and use the Administrator-only options, which let you remove system-wide items, including surplus programs and unneeded System Restore points. To clean up files for all users of your computer, follow these steps:

1. Choose Start All Programs Accessories System Tools Disk Cleanup. Windows displays the Disk Cleanup Options dialog box.

2. Click the Files from All Users on this Computer button, and then authenticate yourself to User Account Control. Windows displays the Disk Cleanup: Drive Selection dialog box.

3. Select the drive you want to clean up, and then click the OK button. Windows displays the Disk Cleanup dialog box, which offers the options listed in step 6 of the previous list, together with the following additional items:

System Archived Windows Error Reporting Files Select this check box to delete these archived error reports, which are similar to the per-user archived reports but apply to errors experienced by the system rather than by applications run by a particular user.

System Queued Windows Error Reporting Files Select this check box if you want to delete these error reports that are queued but not yet archived. Unless you’re desperate for disk space, it’s probably best to keep these reports in case you need to examine them.

4. If you need to reclaim more space, click the More Options tab to display the More

Options page of the Disk Cleanup dialog box .

5.To remove programs you no longer need, click the Clean Up button in the Programs and Features group box. Windows displays a Programs and Features window, which you can use to delete programs. See the section “Removing a Program” in Article 4 for instructions on how to remove programs using the Programs and Features window.

6. To remove all System Restore restore points, except the latest one, click the Clean Up button in the System Restore and Shadow Copies group box, and then click the Delete button in the next Disk Cleanup dialog box shown here. Article 16 shows you how to use System Restore.

7. Click the OK button. Windows displays a Disk Cleanup dialog box confirming that you want to get rid of the files, as shown here.

8. Click the Delete Files button. Windows closes the Disk Cleanup dialog box and disposes of the items you chose.

Checking a Disk for Errors

Once you’ve cleaned unnecessary files off your hard disk, it’s a good idea to check it for errors. Errors typically occur when sectors go bad, which can happen through natural selection some disks age more quickly in parts or unnatural intervention such as physical damage resulting from the disk being bumped or receiving an electrical spike. To check a disk for errors, follow these steps:

1. Close all programs that are on the disk or that might be accessing the disk. In practice, it’s best to close all programs for the time being. Close any files open from the disk.

2. Choose Start Computer. Windows opens a Computer window.

3. Right-click the drive you want to check, and then choose Properties from the context menu. Windows displays the Properties dialog box for the drive.

4. Click the Tools tab. Windows displays the Tools page of the Properties dialog box.

5. Click the Check Now button, and then authenticate yourself to User Account Control. Windows displays the Check Disk dialog box .

6. If you want Windows to repair file-system errors, select the Automatically Fix File System Errors check box.

7. If you want Windows to scan for bad sectors and attempt to recover information from them, and repair file-system errors, select the Scan for and Attempt Recovery of Bad Sectors check box.

8. Click the Start button to run Check Disk. Windows displays the Checking Disk dialog box while it performs the checks.

If you see a dialog box like the one telling you that “Windows can’t check the disk while it’s in use” and asking whether you want to schedule the disk check to take place the next time you restart the computer, click the Schedule Disk Check button. This dialog box typically appears when you’re checking a system volume: Because Windows is constantly using the volume, Check Disk can’t get exclusive access to it.

9. When Check Disk has finished, it displays a message box telling you that the disk check is complete.

10. Click the OK button. Check Disk closes and returns you to the Properties dialog box.

11. Click the OK button. Windows closes the Properties dialog box.