PC TIPS

If you own a computer, you really should know the basics for care, maintenance and protecting your privacy. On this website, you'll find some PC tips ... quick and easy guidance for improving your PC's performance, how to fix a slow computer, PC security and even a little computer humor.

Notice in the left column of every page a growing list of PC Help articles, as well as general PC tips below.

Defragment Your Hard Drive
     About Defragmentation
     How to Defragment Your Hard Drive

About Safe Mode

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Defragment Your Hard Drive

When used in computer talk, the term "fragmentation" is not associated with a feature of explosive weaponry, although there are times when we feel like blowing up our computer! Instead, it has to do with wasted space. During the normal process of your computer hard drive operation, the data that is stored on it gets fragmented - that is - it gets spread out over the whole capacity of the drive.

About Defragmentation
How to Defragment Your Hard Drive

About Defragmentation

Think of your hard drive as a book. It has:

• Table of Contents (File Allocation Table, FAT, FAT32, etc.)
• Chapters (Tracks)
• Paragraphs (Sectors)
• Sentences (file names and data)

One of the MANY rules is that Chapters and Paragraphs have size limitations. You can have a lot of them (Gigs) but each one can only be so big. As the book is written, you add more chapters.

When you are editing existing data, there may not be enough room at the end of the chapter to add more sentences. When this happens, the hard drive will just put the extra data in a new chapter and change the Table of Contents to link the multiple locations together so that you get the complete sentence when you want it.

It works so fast that you probably don't even notice the delay while the hard drive has to look in several places to get the complete data string.

Over a period of time, these "fragments" take more and more time to handle and the hard drive becomes less efficient (i.e. slower).

When you "Defrag", you reorganize the Chapters, Paragraphs and Sentences into sequential data locations and it becomes much easier to get the data. (Folks, we are talking about micro-seconds, but the time can add up.)

Keep in mind that just as soon as you finish Defragging, the process starts to "frag" again. It is a never-ending cycle.

Defragging will take time - how much time depends on the size of your hard drive, the speed of your system, and the amount of fragmentation that has occurred. The very first time you defrag, it may take several hours (yes, hours!). If you defrag on a routine basis, it should only take 15 to 30 minutes.

Instructions for Defragging Your Hard Drive

Wuzzy's Rules of Instructions: There are at least five different ways of doing any single thing in a Windows-operated computer. I know a few - you know a few. Mine work for me - yours work for you. TOGETHER, we CAN get it done!

1) Close down everything you have open (please don't shut the computer down!). Anything running in the background (such as Antivirus updates, Microsoft updates, email that automatically checks for new messages, etc.) will impact the Defrag process. It's like trying to sort money in a piggy bank while people are putting in more money!

2) Right Click on "My Computer" and select "Manage"

3) Select "Disk Defragmenter"

4) Select "Defragment"

You could also go to:
Start | Programs | Accessories | System Tools | Disk Defragment

5) Let it Defrag. You will notice that, after a little while, there will be a Graph/Chart that will show you the condition of your drive. It IS a cute little thing and lets you know the overall condition of the fragmentation. Once the Defrag is finished, a screen will ask you if you want to see a report or just close it out.

I suggest that you consider Defragging your PC at least once a month.

Defrag Hint

You may want to add the Defrag Icon to your desktop as a reminder and so you can start the Defrag function easier. To do this, go to:

Start | Programs | Accessories | System Tools

Right-click on "Disk Defragment"

Select "Send to" and then choose "Desktop (create short cut)".

TOP

SAFE MODE

Your computer is a wondrous collection of bells, whistles, services, add-ons, etc. that works like a charm – most of the time.

When the Operating system initiates (starts up) it knows that you have a High Resolution Graphics card and loads the drivers necessary for that great picture you downloaded for your background.

It also knows that there is an Ethernet Card to connect to your ISP, USB drivers that connect to your All-In-One printer, DVD drivers for your movies, Instant Messaging Start up software, and a bunch of other tasks and/or processes that it was told to do.

Keep in mind, a computer will only do what it is told to do – but it will try to do EVERYTHING it was told to do whether you told it or someone else did. (i.e. Remember last night when your nephew came over to download some music?)

There are times that something gets hosed (technical/geek speak for “goes bad”) and the system will not boot OR reboots continuously OR that dreaded BSD (Blue Screen of Death) appears. One of the most common causes of this are drivers for these peripherals that get corrupted and do not load properly.

Microsoft Windows has a boot process that will allow the Operating System to initiate in a Very Basic mode with just the bare minimum of services. This is called Safe Mode. The screen will look different because it is in a basic 600 x 400 mode, there is no Internet connection, there are no sound drivers loaded, etc.

Sometimes, just booting into Safe Mode and allowing the process to complete will clear the initial problem and a normal boot can be made. Another use would be to run a Defrag in Safe Mode. This will complete much faster as the system is not sharing resources – i.e. Drivers that would keep the video up to speed.

What you can do in Safe Mode is dependant on the version of Windows that you are running – Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Vista – AND it is important that you know the Administrator user password (you did make one and write it down when you first installed your system, didn’t you?)

How to Start Up Your PC in Safe Mode

Starting Up your PC

Generally, you get into Safe Mode during the POST (geek for Power On Self Test) part of the boot process.

When you press the Power Switch, the PC goes through a POST to make sure that the basic hardware is operational. The mother board is tested for good BIOS, memory is checked, the floppy, CD-Rom, and hard drive are checked to make sure they are there, and then a special location of the hard drive is read (boot sector) which contains the instructions for loading the Operating System.

Entering Safe Mode

If you watch your PC screen when you power up, you will get a feeling for the sequence. Right before the boot sector is read, you need to press the F8 key and a special boot menu will appear. From this menu you can select Safe Mode. The system will go through a slightly different boot sequence and will let you know that you are in Safe Mode.

If you miss the menu you may be able to press Ctrl | Alt | Del to reboot – OR – you may need to power off and start over.

Sometimes it is helpful to toggle the “F8” key continuously while the POST is running until the menu appears.

SAFE MODE HINT:

Try to boot into Safe Mode a few times just to see how to do it and to see what it looks like so that when you have to, you will know what to expect.

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