MAINTENANCE OF HDD

A computer’s hard disk is used for the majority of storage requirements. It is important, therefore, to ensure that each hard disk on a computer is operating at peak efficiency, both to use the available storage space effectively and to make disk operations as fast as possible. Two tasks that maximize disk operations are removing unused or unnecessary files and folders by using the Disk Cleanup utility program and consolidating files and folders into contiguous storage areas using the Disk Defragmenter utility program. Defragmenting allows your system to access stored files and folders more efficiently. A. Cleanup Disk To clean up the disk by removing any programs and data that are not required for the computer, complete the following steps: 1. Click the Start button on the Windows taskbar and then click Computer on the Start menu. 2. When the Computer window opens, right-click the hard disk icon for drive C (or any other hard disk you want to select) and then click Properties on the shortcut menu. 3. If necessary, click the General tab in the disk drive Properties dialog box to display the General sheet. 4. Click the Disk Cleanup button in the General sheet to display the Disk Cleanup Options dialog box.  5. The Disk Cleanup dialog box is displayed and contains a message that indicates the amount of space that can be freed up is being calculated. 6. After the calculation is complete, the Disk Cleanup dialog box specifies the amount of space that can be freed up and the files to delete, some of which are selected automatically (Figure 6-31). Select those items from which you wish to delete files. 7. Click the OK button in the Disk Cleanup dialog box. 8. A dialog box asks if you are sure you want to perform these actions. Click the Delete Files button. The Disk Cleanup dialog box illustrates the progress of the cleanup. When the cleanup is complete, the dialog box closes. B. Defragment Disk After removing all the unnecessary files from the hard disk, the next step in disk maintenance is to defragment all the files on the disk. When a file is stored on disk, the data in the file sometimes is stored contiguously, and other times is stored in a noncontiguous manner. The greater the amount of data on a disk, the more likely files will be stored noncontiguously. When a file is stored in a noncontiguous manner, it can take significantly longer to find and retrieve data from the file. One of the more useful utilities to speed up disk operations, therefore, is the defragmentation program, which combines all files so that no files are stored in a noncontiguous manner. To use the defragmentation program, complete the following steps: 1. If necessary, click the Tools tab in the Properties dialog box for the hard disk to be defragmented. 2. Click the Defragment now button in the Tools sheet to open the Disk Defragmenter window (Figure 6-32). This window displays the Disk Defragmenter schedule, when Disk Defragmenter was run last, and when Disk Defragmenter is scheduled to run next. 3. Click the Defragment disk button. The defragmentation process begins. During the defragmentation process, the Stop operation button replaces the Defragment disk button. The defragment ation process can consume more than one hour in some cases, depending on the size of the hard disk and the amount of processing that must occur. You can cancel the operation at any time by clicking the Stop operation button in the Disk Defragmenter window. 4. When the process is complete, the Defragment disk button will replace the Stop operation button. 5. Click the Close button to close the Disk Defragmenter window. Proper disk maintenance is critically important so that disk operation is as e fficient as possible.