Tips for computer health

A couple useful steps in maintaining a healthy computer are:

Having up to date anti-virus running on your computer, scanning emails, and checking for and installing critical windows updates regularly.

Clean Up Your Computer
Have you heard the term defrag and wondered what that is? There are a variety of system cleanup processes (including "defrag") that should be done on a regular basis in order to help keep your computer running efficiently. If you are interested in using these processes, the steps are outlined below.

Note: The following instructions are general in nature. Cozadtel.net claims no liability regarding the maintenance of your computer or the results of following these directions. Contact Cozad Telephone Company or your favorite computer technician for advice and/or training if you need additional assistance.

For Windows 95/98/ME
Disk Cleanup - Your computer is probably storing a bunch of files that it no longer needs. It's a good idea to clean out these files on a regular basis to prevent the buildup of unnecessary files that are wasting harddrive space.

Open "My Computer" and find your C drive. Right click on the C Drive and choose Properties from the gray menu. On the General tab you'll see a pie chart indicating how much room you have left on your hard drive. Find the button toward the bottom that says Disk Cleanup. It will scan your harddrive for files it feels can be safely discarded in order to gain more harddrive space. Choose which folders you'd like to clean out by putting a checkmark in the box to the left of each option. Click OK when you've chosen your folders and it will begin deleting those files.

Check Drive For Errors
It's a good idea to periodically scan your computer for drive errors in order to give it a chance to repair any problems it finds.

Open "My Computer" and find your C drive. Right click on the C Drive and choose Properties from the gray menu. Choose the Tools Tab. Find the area titled "Error Checking Status". It will tell you when you last checked that drive for errors. Click the OK button to begin checking the drive. You may choose the standard or thorough tests. Then press start. Based on the size of your harddrive this process can take between 5 and 10 minutes.

System Defrag
Close all open programs when doing this operation on your system. Do this step after you have scanned the drive for errors. Why do this? When your computer saves files to the harddrive, the files are scattered all over the place. Defragging rearranges and reorganizes the files to help your machine run more efficiently. If you are an active computer user, this process should be done approximately once a month. If you are not actively using your computer a defrag need only be done every few months.

Open "My Computer" and find your C drive. Right click on the C Drive and choose Properties from the gray menu. Choose the Tools Tab. Find the area titled "Defragmentation Status". It will tell you when you last defragged this drive. Click Defrag Now to begin the process. Note: Defrags can take a long time to process (several hours - some even overnight) if it has been a long time since you did a defrag. If you just did a defrag last month it will likely only take a matter of minutes to complete the defrag again.