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InfoTech: Spring cleaning time
1 Mar, 2008 By: Tyler Whitaker Landscape ManagementMarch is the month of St. Patrick's Day, Easter and the Ides of March (which I'm still trying to figure out.) It's also the month for spring cleaning. OK, let's be real for a minute. If I can help it, the only thing I'll be cleaning this spring is my computer's hard drive. With that admission, below are some tips to give your computer a speed up by cleaning and organizing your hard drive.
- Use folders — Organize for efficiency. Have you ever lost that important spreadsheet because you forgot where you saved it? Nothing stops that problem quicker than a good folder structure. Separate your personal files from your business files. Once you have your family vacation pictures separate from your world domination .xls files, separate your files by project or customer. Breaking down files by customer or company department keeps things clean and easy to find.
- Remove old programs — Computers collect all kinds of old and obsolete programs. If kept unchecked your PC will become the digital equivalent of your grandma's knick knack ridden living room. Follow this rule of thumb: Uninstall early and often. Windows provides a useful utility in the control panel for removing programs. The "Add" or "Remove Programs" tool lists give you the ability to remove them. Review this list at least once each month.
- Clean up — Take out the digital trash. Hopefully organizing your files will alert you to the fact that some of them can be deleted altogether. You know the files. Chances are you haven't touched these files in at least six months and may never need them. If that's the case, delete away. If you really think you might need these files, try burning them to a data CD or DVD for storage with your regular computer backups.
A great tool to use is the "Disk Cleanup Utility," found under "Start, All Programs," "Accessories." and then "System Tools." This tool will identify temporary or unnecessary files on your system and then remove them for you. Cleaning up the dead weight on your hard drive will help make the next step easier.
- Defragment — Fragmented hard drives will slow your computer. This occurs naturally as you add, edit and delete files on computer. Imagine your hard drive as a large game of Tetris with files broken into blocks. As files are added and deleted, these blocks are placed in every conceivable location. The Windows "Disk Defragmenter" tool, found in the "System Tools" folder, can speed up your hard drive by moving file blocks back together. Removing the "Swiss cheese" effect on you hard drive on a regular basis will also reduce the wear and tear on your hard drive.
This spring as you contemplate cleaning the garage, basement or office, stop to consider spending quality time with your computer hard drive. Keeping it clean and organized will pay dividends.
— The author is a freelance technologist focusing in business automation. Contact him at 801/592-2810 or visit his blog at
www.tylerwhitaker.com.
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