Datasheet

Tweaking Windows

Select the (C): drive under Volume, and

click the Analyze button to see a graphical

representation of how fragmented your drive

is. Red is bad, blue is good, green is neutral,

and white is free. If you see a lot of red, then

it’s definitely time to clean things up. Select

Defragment, and let Windows do the rest (if

only organizing my closet were so easy!). If

you’ve never done this, or it’s been a long time,

defragmenting could take hours; consequently,

you’ll want to defragment at night when you’re

finished with work. You may also need to do it

multiple times to get rid of all the red.

You must have at least 15 percent free space on a volume to defragment it. If you don’t have this much

free space, make some by archiving old files onto DVD or tape backup.

Error Checking

If your system locks up or dies due to power failure (pay attention, California), there is a

good chance your hard drive scrambled a few files in its death throes when the head jerked

erratically across the platters as they spun down (sounds horrific, doesn’t it?). Checking (and

fixing) your hard drive is a good idea if you see the Windows blue screen of death after expe-

riencing a serious crash.

Although it may not solve every problem, a Windows utility called

CHKDSK (check disk, in

English) may be able to repair the damage.

You have to be logged on with Administrator rights to run CHKDSK.

Click the Start menu, and choose Run. Type CHKDSK C: /f, and click OK. The /f switch

is necessary because it fixes problems rather than just telling you about them (like your

coworkers). If you do this on your C: drive, you’ll see a message like this:

Chkdsk cannot run because the volume is in use by another process.

Would you like to schedule this volume to be checked the next time the system restarts?

(Y/N)

Ty pe Y, and the drive will be checked the next time you start the computer. It may take

20 minutes, so plan ahead.

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