One area in which many computers are lacking is data storage capacity. When you first buy a computer, you think to yourself “I’ll never fill up 100Gb of disk space.” Well, application manufacturers have other ideas, and pretty soon, your disk is approaching full. What is full? If you’ve used 75% of your available disk space, your disk is approaching full, and having available disk space is critical to your effort to speed up your computer.

Why Is 75% Full Really Full?

Computers use hard disk space for more than long-term file storage. Computers write plenty of temporary files when you’re using applications, browsing the Internet and performing other computer-related tasks. In addition, computers use hard disk space to make up for a shortage of RAM. When you have lots of applications open, your computer uses its RAM first; once your RAM is full, it switches to disk space to “swap” information in and out of RAM. The more you ask your computer to do, the more swap space you’ll need. This is especially true of graphics intensive programs like games, modeling software, and graphics editing programs.

The impact of not having enough available hard disk space is slow computer performance. In addition to speed problems, you’re likely to end up with more serious performance issues like crashing and loss of data. If you have a limited amount of money to spend, your first choice should be to delete files you no longer need. After all, deleting files is free! Go through your file system with a fine-toothed comb and clear out old files you don’t need. Temporary files and download files are prime targets.

If you’ve removed all the files you can, and you still need additional space, consider moving file “collections” to some other storage medium. For example, if you have a large collection of photographs or music that is stored on your hard disk, consider moving it to a CD or DVD to clear space on your computer. You can keep your storage DVDs handy, and eliminate space on your primary hard disk at the same time. You could also accomplish the same thing using a few low-cost, high-capacity USB drives.

If you do have a few dollars to spend, you can pick up a TB of external storage space these days for around $100. External storage is great for files you want to keep handy, and perhaps even add to, but don’t need to store on your primary drive. If you store large graphics files or lots of music, a “nearline” storage solution may clear up your drive for immediate operational use.

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If all you ever do to your computer is run the Disk Clean Up and Disk Defragmenter utility, you’ll be farther ahead than most home computer users. Combined, these two tools can help speed up your computer remarkably. There’s more, however, that you can do to ensure that your computer keeps running smoothly.

Getting Rid Of Broken Files With Error Checking

We all make mistakes, and “we” includes computers. Corrupted files aren’t so much mistakes as they are accidents. Sometimes, files don’t get written properly, or the area of the disk they’re written to is of questionable value. A bad disk sector is the computer equivalent of a pothole in the road. The end result of these potholes is that information may get written there, and later, the computer is unable to read it.

The Error Checking utility is designed to find these worthless disk sectors and lock them out, so the computer doesn’t make the mistake of writing to them again. Although this activity takes a bit of time, it saves time and aggravation in the long run because the computer is able to avoid the potholes that would slow it down.

The Error Checking utility is another built-in utility from Microsoft. You can run the Error Checking utility on any disk but you’ll definitely want to run it on your C:\ drive. To run the Error Checking utility. Before you start your scan, you’ll need to close all open files and quit any running applications.

In the My Computer window, right-click the hard disk you want to scan, and choose Properties > Tools. Choose Check Now.

Select the Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors check box, and then click Start. You can also check “Automatically fix file system errors” though some users prefer to have the computer identify bad sectors first, then go back to fix them on a second pass. Once a disk sector is bad, it’s bad. Windows will try to recover the information from the bad sector, but this isn’t always possible. Error checking typically results in a few unusable files, but keep in mind that Error Checking didn’t cause the problem; it’s just letting you know that something less-than-optimal happened.

You can restore corrupted files from a backup, if you make them (that’s a different post for a different day), and system files that have gone bad can be restored by Windows. Marking bad disk sectors, however, will help prevent slow computer performance and computer crashes.

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In my last post, I covered the importance of using a tool like Disk Cleanup to speed up your computer. If you remember, Disk Cleanup is used to remove temporary files, unused Windows components, the contents of your Recycle Bin, etc. An old supervisor of mine always used to counsel, “Do the cheap stuff first” and Disk Cleanup is a handy tool that can get the basics out of the way in a hurry.

More Disk Space May Not Be Useful By Itself

What does Disk Cleanup get you? Free disk space. Sometimes, that’s worth more than gold when it comes to computer performance. By ensuring that your computer has adequate free disk space, you allow the computer to operate the way it was designed to. As a rule of thumb, your hard disk should always have at least 20%-25% of its available space free. If your hard disk is mostly full, it’s time to consider adding more space or reducing the amount of data you’re carrying around.

Disk Cleanup also leads to the second thing you can do to improve or preserve your computer performance.

Defragment Your Hard Disk

Disk space is only really useful to the computer if it’s clustered together on the hard disk. A few empty bytes here or there may add up to free space, but if the free space on the disk isn’t grouped together, the computer won’t use it unless it has no other option. A build in tool called Disk Defragmenter can organize the information on your hard disk and cluster the free space on your drive together. The computer will find the free space and use it to write larger files. The more clustered available space your computer has, the happier it is.

When you create files, you use free space on your computer. Likewise, when you delete files, you open that space back up. Each file space is tailor-made to fit the file you’re creating, so it’s unlikely that a new file will fit perfectly into a deleted file’s space neatly.
When a space isn’t big enough on the hard disk to hold an entire file, the computer must write a bit of the file in one place, stop to find an available spot, pick up and move its writing equipment, and finally write the rest of the file somewhere else. The computer is slowed by having to write, then stop to look for more space, then write again. The computer encounters the same problem when reading the file. It reads, stops to locate the rest of the file, moves the read/write hardware to the new space, and finally gets back to reading the file.

Disk Defragmenter, located at All Programs > Accessories > System Tools can help keep written information organized and neat, while minimizing the amount of time the computer has to spend looking for available hard disk space.

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Computer technology becomes outdated almost as fast as it hits the store shelves. The disparity in performance between work or school computers and the computers you use at home may lead you to conclude that your home computer is slow. In reality, businesses and schools replace their technology more frequently than home users do, so it’s no surprise that you’re looking to speed up your computer in the wake of the never-ending waves of new computer technology.

An Old Computer Isn’t Necessarily A Slow Computer

You can preserve the operating speed of your home computer by keeping it in good shape. A little maintenance and good user habits can go a long way toward making sure you get the most out of your home computer.
So, exactly what’s involved in taking care of your home computer? In this and the next few posts, I’ll discuss the periodic maintenance that you should be performing on your home computer. Ultimately, nothing will take the place of a faster, newer processor, but you can preserve the computing power you have and extend your PC’s useful life by following these tips.

Keep Your Disk Clean. No one likes cleaning, even digital cleaning. Keeping your computer free of accumulated unnecessary files will enable your computer to make the most of its disk space. Additionally, some useless files are useless because they’ve become corrupted. Corrupted files can cause major slowdowns and poor performance for your computer. It’s essential that you find these clunkers and get rid of them.

Before you get to the heavy-duty lifting, you should run Disk Cleanup, a built-in tool that Microsoft has provided. Disk Cleanup will remove temporary files, empty your Recycle Bin, optional Windows components that you’re not using, and eliminate old backup/restore files that are no longer needed. Removing the temporary files is something like removing cobwebs. These files were once useful and they’ve been replaced by something else or are no longer needed. Removing these ghosts will free up disk space and give your computer more performance options.

To access Disk Cleanup, choose Start > All Programs>Accessories>System Tools and choose Disk Cleanup. Use the wizard to help you choose the drive(s) you want to clean. Disk Cleanup will identify files it thinks you can do without and will wait for your OK to go to work.

Running Disk Cleanup is one of the easiest ways to start maintaining your PC. In future posts, I’ll cover other surefire ways to preserve your computer’s performance.

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Computers age more quickly than other equipment does, partially because the computer manufacturers are always coming out with newer, better, faster and cheaper components that expand the capacity of a computer and reduce its cost at the same time. This fact, along with several habits users may adopt, can add up to a slow computer.

Eliminating Bad Habits That Can Lead To A Slow Computer

What You’re Doing: Storing files on the desktop. This sneaky little habit can cause your computer to devote extra memory to your OS on top of what it’s already devoted to the file system. Each document or other item that is stored on the desktop takes up valuable operating memory.
What You Should Be Doing: Saving your files in the file system. Microsoft creates folders like your Downloads and Document folders to help you avoid storing files on the desktop. Use these folders when you download files or create documents. If you don’t like doing that, develop a structure within your file system to save your files. Don’t store anything on the desktop!

What You’re Doing: Running the standard installation routine. When you download or install a new application, the Setup.exe file or the installer file usually has a pre-programmed installation routine that stores the application files in a particular place in the file structure. It also adds the other files (like libraries) you may need to get the application to work properly. The installer routine often enters your new application into the “startup items” file set, meaning that the new application will start automatically. It also adds the application to the Start Menu and/or Task Bar, and puts an icon on the desktop.
What You Should Be Doing: Select “Custom Install” to look at exactly what the installer plans to do. Eliminate the extras like the Start Menu add-on, the startup items entry, the desktop alias and/or the Task Bar add-on. Start programs that you won’t use every day manually. The more extras you can eliminate from the standard installation routine, the better off you’ll be.

In my next post, we’ll cover three other tips that can help you change your work habits as they relate to your slow computer. Once you’ve purchased a computer, you can’t improve your hardware performance very much – at least not without spending more money. You can correct work habits that rob your computer of operating memory and lead to a slow computer, however!

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