DISK DRIVE MAINTENANCE To keep a PC running smoothly, regular maintenance is critical. Many users shy away from maintenance tasks, thinking it is a long, drawn out manual affair, but the Disk Cleanup Utility can easily determine which files on a hard drive may no longer be needed and delete those files. In addition to freeing up potentially significant amounts of hard drive space, using Disk Cleanup on a regular basis can significantly improve system performance. There are two separate operations performed to maintain your computer s hard drive. 1. Disk Cleanup STEP 1: 1. Disk Clean-up Select My Computer 2. Post Disk Clean-up (Defragmentation)
STEP 2: Select the computer s Hard Drive. Use the mouse right button (Left Button if left-handed). Locate and select the Properties option.
STEP 3: Select the Disk Cleanup option to start the Clean-up process. Once the process starts you will see a small informational screen with a progress bar.
The next informational screen in the sequence is a summary of the type of files that Windows found that can be removed to save space. Instead of automatically proceeding with cleanup once the drive analysis is complete, Disk Cleanup allows you to review the categories of files that can be deleted. Notice that each category has a check box. Windows is installed with certain defaults that you can change. By checking or un-checking the boxes you tell Windows what to clean-up. Check is equal to a Yes for clean-up. (Description of the categories are on the following page). There are 3 categories that it is recommended they remain unchecked: Office Setup Files Compress Old Files Catalog Files for the Content Indexer Once you select OK the clean-up process will take place.
File Categories in the Disk Cleanup Utility There are a number of different types of file categories that Disk Cleanup targets when it performs the initial disk analysis. Depending on the individual system, you may or may not have all the categories listed below. An excellent example of this would be Backup Files from a Previous Operating System. If a clean install of XP was performed then this category will not exist. Downloaded Program Files These are ActiveX controls and Java applets downloaded from Web sites that are temporarily stored in the Downloaded Program Files folder. They are NOT program files or zip files that you have downloaded from other locations. Temporary Internet Files This refers to Internet Explorer's cache (cache is a temporary storage area) of Web pages that are stored on the hard drive for quicker viewing. None of your personal web settings are affected by selecting this category, nor does it delete any cookie files. Recycle Bin The main thing to be aware of in this category is that it only refers to the Recycle Bin for the selected hard drive or partition. This is important since Windows XP uses an individual Recycle Bin for each drive and partition, not just one as is the case in some Windows versions. If your computer has two local hard drives, you need to run two separate clean-up processes. Temporary Remote Desktop Files These files are the result of using the Remote Desktop utility. Remote Desktop Utility allows you to access your computer from anywhere in the world, as long as you have internet connection. If you repeatedly use Remote Desktop with the same computer or group of computers, leaving these files intact will maintain the speed of future connections. Deleting them will necessitate downloading the remote systems icons and wallpaper the next time a connection is established. Setup Log Files These are really pretty useless unless you have a specific reason to go back and see what occurred during XP setup.
Backup Files For Previous Operating System This category will be present if you did upgrade from a previous Windows version and selected the option to be able to uninstall XP, it may well exist. It takes some major hard drive space to copy all the files necessary to back up a previous system's core files, drivers, etc. This entry can range anywhere from a few hundred megabytes up to a gigabyte, so unless you are still considering dumping XP this is a good category to select. Offline Files Users with slower dialup connections and those using laptops frequently make websites they use often available offline. Depending on how many levels deep you save the sites, they can eat up gigabytes of hard drive space very quickly. Worse than taking up space, the sites often contain outdated information. This category is a good candidate for deletion. Compress Old Files Compress Old Files does not delete any files from the drive. It compresses files that Windows has not accessed for a specified period of time. The files are still available, but there will be a slight increase in access times because the files will be decompressed the next time they are accessed. Normally when Compress Old Files is highlighted, an Options button appears. Clicking it will allow you to set the number of days to wait before an unaccessed file is compressed. Note: Categories that appear in your Disk Cleanup window, display an explanation of the category in the Description area when the category item is highlighted.
The Disk Cleanup More Options Tab In Windows XP there are three choices available on the More Options tab: Windows Components, Installed Programs, and System Restore. Windows Components When selecting the Windows Components section, launches a Windows Components Wizard. Select a general category of components and drill down using the Details button to locate the desired Windows component. Installed Programs The Installed Programs section opens the Add/Remove Programs dialog box. Any installed program can be removed by selecting the individual program and clicking the Change/Remove button. You cannot select multiple programs together to be removed. Each removal operation must be treated as a separate unit. System Restore The System Restore section opens a dialog box where it asks if you are sure you want to delete all but the most recent restore point. Click Yes or No depending on your choice.
2. Post Disk Cleanup Procedures Using Disk Cleanup will almost certainly rid your system of a substantial amount of unneeded files. You could stop here and not suffer any ill consequences, but there are a lot of gaps and empty spaces on the hard drive where the files were removed. This would be an excellent time to run Disk Defragmenter to organize the hard drive into contiguous sections. The benefit is that the hard drive heads will spend less time seeking all the pieces of a file and you'll see another performance boost. Select the Tools Tab located at the top of the Properties dialog box. Then click on the Defragment Now option button.
Once you click on Defragment Now... in Disk Defragmenter status box you will see a dialog screen like the one blow. Click the Defragment option button to start the process of reorganizing and re-indexing the files. Once the process starts you will see Disk Defragmenter status box change to look similar to the dialog screen like the one blow. After the process ends you will see an option button to view the log of what events took place and then exit this utility. You can also exit the utility without viewing the log. Recommendation: at this point you should shut down and then restart your computer.