Optimizing PC's
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Tuning Up Work stations

Regrettably, this is one of the most often neglected yet luckily, easiest ways to improve performance at the users level without necessarily calling a technician on-site.

Just as you would regularly get your car washed & periodically waxed to maintain that ‘sharp look’ and every 3,000 miles get the oil and filter changed, so should the computers benefit from some sprucing up.

The following two utilities are usually accessed by selecting Programs, then Accessories and finally System Tools. They should be accessed and performed at regular intervals (we suggest once per month but at minimum every quarter!!).

Scandisk

Depending on the options that are selected, Scandisk performs a HDD check. If it finds any problems such as lost clusters or damaged drive segments, it automatically fixes them. We suggest that you select:

• THOROUGH
• FIX ERRORS AUTOMATICALLY

options. It should take 5 to 15 minutes, depending on the size of your HDD.

Defrag

When data is written to a HDD, files moved from folders or erased, power unexpectedly shuts down your PC’s, over time it creates havoc on your local drives. The result is fragmentation or dispersion of data which should be in sequence and consequently results in poor seek \ write performance.

This utility examines the HDD and rearranges the files for optimum performance. This procedure takes from 5 to 15 minutes depending of the size and status of your file system.