Wednesday, September 20, 2006

Laptop Maintenance

1) Clean Your Hard Drive

Over the course of a month it is easy to accumulate a lot of unnecessary files on your laptop hard drive. Take the time once a month to go through your hard drive and examine the files there. Determine which should be saved elsewhere for future reference and which can be trashed. If you download programs on a regular basis to try new things or just to have access to new programs for projects, properly un-install those programs when no longer needed. A cleaner hard drive runs smoother.

2) Defrag Your Hard Drive

Defragging your hard drive is another step to ensuring your laptop will run more efficiently. Taking the time to defrag once a month will allow your programs to run more quickly and make better use of the space on your hard drive. When you defrag your laptop hard drive on a monthly basis you should notice fewer software crashes or freeze ups and programs will run better.

3) Keep Your Laptop Clean

Cleaning your laptop helps prevent overheating and those nasty dust bunnies from building up inside your laptop fans and exposed ports. Cleaning the screen also means you'll always view your data clearly and it's much easier on the eyes. Keeping your case free of dust and dirt buildup will help your laptop by preventing that dirt from getting inside the laptop.

4) Full Back-Up

Full back-ups should be conducted on a monthly basis and you should have a secure, fire-proof location to store your back-up. There are a variety of software and hardware options available. You should chose the method that is easy and can be done without fuss on a monthly basis. It may require trying different methods before you find the best back-up system for your needs.

5) Software Updates

Just as you keep your anti-virus and firewall software up-to-date, you should also keep your software programs updated. For many programs the updates will address security issues which help keep your laptop and data protected while on the road.

Source : About.com
Cartoon : Photosearch.com