Infoware NG
Archive for the ‘Computers’ Category
Care and Feeding of Your Hard Drive
Every computer has a hard drive. The hard drive is an essential part of a computer. It holds the operating system, stores data, and runs every program the computer uses. Without the hard drive, you do not have a computer. All of your important information is stored on the hard drive. Your pictures, your financial records, your music, your school assignments, and every other piece of data that you have are kept on this one device. Most of us do not back up our data in case of problems. That is why you should at least take measures for basic care of your hard drive to ensure that it does not die a premature death.
One simple way to care for your hard drive is to perform a periodic defragmentation. When a computer runs for a long time, bits of data are stored in different locations throughout the physical hard drive. The computer will take a single file and break it up into smaller pieces that are stored wherever there is room. The longer the hard drive runs, the more the files are fragmented. A fragmented hard drive can be sluggish and slow, and might have to work harder than a non-fragmented hard drive. Windows operating systems have a defragmentation tool that will defragment the hard drive to bring each file back into continuation. Depending on how much fragmentation there was, this may help the hard drive run smoother and faster, and could take some physical strain off of the device to allow it to last longer. Third party defragmentation utilities are also available which will perform the same function.
Another tool for caring for your hard drive is the Disk Cleanup Tool. When executed, this utility will search the hard drive for temporary files, junk files, useless internet files, downloaded program files, and other pieces of data that serve no purpose on the computer. This utility will delete all of these files, giving you more room and clearing up the clutter. This may help your hard drive run faster as it will not have to sift through unneeded data when looking for files.
Virus protection and firewalls are also a good way to protect your hard drive. Viruses, malware, Trojan horses, worms, spyware, and other malicious programs exist all over the Internet. These programs find ways to enter your computer and can wreak all sorts of havoc if left untouched. A firewall utility works to keep the programs from accessing your computer, or if infected, keeps the programs from accessing the Internet without your knowledge. Virus protection programs keep the malicious software from installing on the computer in the first place, and clear out any infections when installed. A malicious software program can ruin all of the programs on a hard drive if given the chance, forcing you to reinstall the operating system in some cases, causing a loss of important data. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure in this case, meaning that spending a little money up front can save on an expensive repair later on.