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Archive for November, 2009
Protect Your Computer—How to Maintain Hard Disk
Nov 30th
As a member of computer storage equipment, hard disk plays much important role in computer running. However, since hard disk belongs to magnetic media, it is unable to use stably as well as other equipments do such as memory. In fact, it is unavoidable for you to encounter various problems. What is worse, as disk is involved in system in-depth settings, you must solve some problems under DOS circumstance.
If you are not an experienced user, it will be head ache for you. Therefore, the best method to handle it is not to solve the problems when happen but learn how to prevent them in advance. So, in this article, I will tell you some simple methods to guard against hard disk problems.
Do not compress your hard disk.
In the past, it was common to compress disk by certain orders in hope to save more space. However, as compress volume file was augmenting gradually, its read-write speed was reduced obviously. What is worse, it might creak when reading or writing data which meant it worked with heavy burden. Nowadays, disk capacity has been expanded day by day, you do not have to worry about the low disk space problem. That is to say, it is necessary to compress disk on condition that there is enough disk space to run applications.
You should clear up hard disk regularly.
Proper disk defragmentation can improve computer speed without question. If too many disk fragments are accumulating excessively, it can slow down visiting speed and harm disk tracks as well. Defragment disk can help you clear up those rubbish and make computer regain high speed. But at the same time, you should not defragment disk frequently, it can also harm disk.
Besides, you should know how to hold hard disk correctly.
When maintaining computer, you should hold the computer sides and avoid the rear circuit board colliding with other stiff things. You should hold and put it lightly. Do not touch the circuit board casually, because the static on your hand may harm electronic component on the hard disk.
You should not do low-level format lightly.
Actually, low-level formatting is the most thorough initialization of hard disk. After you perform such operation, the original protective data may be lost completely. To some degree, low-level formatting is destructive to hard disk. So only when it is extremely necessary that can you do such operation.
At the same time, avoid frequent high-level formatting operations.
It can do harm to hard disk as well. Although compared to low-level formatting, it is much better to your hard disk, it can affect hard disk performance as well. If you really want to do that, I suggest you to use the quick formatting order of parameter “Q” under the circumstance of not rearranging partitions. It is much safer for hard disks.
In conclusion, as hard disk is so significant for your computer, you should spare no effort to maintain it so as to protect your computer efficiently.
Computer Maintenance—How to Maintain Hard Disk Correctly
Nov 30th
As one of most durable fixings among computer components, hard disk can be used for six to seven years on condition that it is preserved well. Now, I will tell you how to maintain hard disk correctly.
The hard disk maintenance can be divided into two aspects. From point of view of hardware, it is better to use case, especially for those computer players. Although putting computer on the desk can help heat radiation and uninstall, it can harm computer hardware as well and hard disk in particular. Since hard disk is working with high speed, any unstable wave may lead to furious collision between disk head and Disc. And, you should avoid high temperature when using computer because it can affect computer working normally and bring damages to hard disk.
At the same time although some users know correct hard disk maintenance can do good to computer, their hard disks are still suffered from damages due to improper operations.
Though they have learned regular defragmentation can do good for hard disk from websites, they do not realize how “regular” means. If they think it can speed up computer when defragmenting hourly, it is completely wrong. As a matter of fact, frequent disk defragmentation may drag disk using efficiency. In the long run, it falls short of improving computer speed, even run counter to the desire.
What is good for hard disk and computer is to defragment properly. If you do not defragment disk for a long time, an increasingly number of disk fragments are piling in the hard disk. Then, when you visit certain of them in the future, it may take much more to read these files. Since time goes by, it can reduce files visiting speed and also harm disk tracks probably.
And when copying files, some prefer to copy several files at one time but do not know that the hard disk is overburdening, since you may find hard disk creaking loudly. Therefore, you should use anti-virus software to protect your hard disks, for example CIH may destroy the partitions in the hard disk and result in the loss of data.
Besides, do not try to use disk compress technology in the system tools. At present, disk capacity is large enough to support the computer running. It is really unnecessary to save disk space by compressing hard disks. What is more, it can slow down disk read-write data speed and affect disk usage indirectly. If you urgently want to free up disk space, it is better for you to get rid of junk files such as temporary and swap ones.
Many users do not form a good habit of closing down computer. They are hurry to pull out electric power without shutting down computer completely, even some turn off switch. However, the computer has not been replaced yet. Therefore, you should pay closed attention to whether hard disk indicator is on or not when turning off computer. It is a good habit for you in order to maintain your computer well.
In this regard, you may find it is very important to form a good habit of maintaining computer correctly, because it has influenced on hard disk and computer performance. It is a must for you to shape such good habit so as to guarantee your computer can work for you efficiently.
Computer crash randomly — How to avoid computer crashes
Nov 30th
For all PC users, it is annoyed to see that the computer crash randomly. So how to avoid computer crashes has been one main problem for them.
First, it is necessary to know that all computers will crash and no operating system can be escaped, no matter it has been used for a very long time or brandy new. But it is not easy to point out all causes for it involves to kinds of computer usage like some issues related to the hardware, software. But you can effort from some sides to avoid computer crashes.
1. Diligently patch the system
As we all know problems will occur if there are some system bugs such as some hackers will break into your system to spy out data and violate your privacy. So a system patch will help you timely correct some bugs and always protect your PC, avoiding computer crashes.
2. Duly update anti-virus program
If a computer is infected by a virus, lots of resources will be taken up when starting up the computer and slow it down. What is more, the virus will seriously steal users’ privacy, change PC settings, and even give outside parties control over the computer, which will seriously result in computer crashes. So it is recommended that you can install an anti-virus program and firewall to protect your computer from crashing time to time. But that is not enough. It is needed for you to update it duly in order to always ensure the latest virus database.
3. Carefully install programs on the computer
Before installing a program on your computer, first check whether it is safe / necessary or not. When finding that a program is not needed any more, you have to uninstall it from your computer in time to release more available free space, preventing computer crashes. You can go to Start, All Programs and then Add / Remove Programs within Control Panel to thoroughly uninstall the unneeded programs.
4. Timely defragment the computer
From a fact study, we know that lots of computer users have never run a disk defragmentation during the lifetime of the computer, thinking that it has nothing to do with the PC performance. But in fact, a simple disk defragment plays very important role in speeding up the computer for it will reassemble all parts of a same content and then make them stay close together. Hence, it will reduce the movement of the hard disk head and speed up the disk visiting time. So a periodical defragmentation is needed in order to prevent computer crashes because of the large amount of disk fragments.
5. Remember not to visit pornography sites
Currently, pornography sites have been the media of pushing scams and virus transmission, which brings sever potential risk to users’network security. So please do not visit these kinds of sites in order to protect / maintain your PC performance.
As you can see that above is what you can do in daily life to avoid computer crashes and protect your computer. But here, I just want to emphasize again the important role of a simple disk defragmentation. It will help you effectively manage the files on your computer and then speed it up.
If you have never run a disk defragmentation before, it is highly recommended that you can run one right now to avoid computer crashes and speed it up.
Causes for computer crashes — simple ways for you to optimize your computer
Nov 30th
When using the computer, I believe it won’t be a pleasant experience to see that it freezes or crashes frequently. So it is necessary for you as a user to master some knowledge on what causes the computer crashes and how to them to optimize your computer.
There are many causes to why the computer crash suddenly while you are in the midst of doing something and each has its own solution. But normally, below are the most common causes for computer crashes.
Cause one: Hardware conflict
If a crash is caused by hardware conflict, it is very easy to solve it by replacing the necessary components. But please bear in mind that the new items must be compatible with the existing hardware. Only in this way, will your computer run properly.
Cause two: Spyware or Adware running on the computer
As we all know that when there are malicious spyware and adware running on your computer, lots of valuable resources will be used up, which will cause your computer to run slowly and eventually crash. So to optimize your computer, it is vital to install correct anti-spyware software on your computer to block the potential danger presented to network security.
Cause three: Infected by viruses
Similarly to Spyware or Adware, if the computer is infected by viruses, a large amount of system resources will be taken and then slow down the computer. Seriously, it will eventually crash the computer. So please regularly scan your computer for viruses to always optimize your computer.
Cause four: Too many programs running at the same time
When a program is running, it will take some certain amount of system resources and memory. If too many programs run at once (including those running at the background), a crash will occur because of limited memory. So please close down other running programs as possible as you can but the one that you need currently, which will free up memory to ensure a smooth running of the program you do need.
Cause five: Registry problems
For users who have some knowledge about computers, they may know that windows registry is the main soul of the computer, which determines the proper running of the entire machine. If there is something wrong, the computer will become a cold and useless machine only. When surfing the internet or uninstalling programs, there may be some registry entries left on the computer, overloading it or messing it up. Seriously, it will suddenly crash the computer. So it is necessary to have an impact registry. You can fix this by cleaning it with some free registry cleaners.
Cause six: No disk defragmentation for a long-term usage
As we all know that the fragments on the hard disk make it impossible fast access to what we want. The more fragments on the hard disk, the more time it will cost when trying to input / output files, which will greatly slow down or crash the computer. So a disk defragmentation is needed in order to rearrange the files on the computer, making all part of a same file coherently stay at the same place.
Besides the above causes, there are some other aspects which will result in computer crashes like not enough memory, a system bug. When considering that my computer is running slow, I went to take a disk defragmentation and found that it solved the problem instantly.
Frustrated with your slow computer? It is recommended to run a disk defragmentation right now to optimize your computer. Believe me, it will speed up your computer easily like what it did to my computer.
Hard Disk—Useful Methods to Fix Hard Disk Problems
Nov 27th
It is known to all that hard disk is storage of the computer. If there is any problem in it, it can not only harm hard disk but also slow down your computer. Therefore, you should need to know how to protect hard disk, even fix the problems. This is what I want to tell you in this article.
Sometimes, logical bad track can result from using formal vision of software. Is it weird? Actually, when some software reads data into certain sectors, others are excluded to visit these sectors. In such condition, the scanning program may consider mistakenly there are bad tracks in the sectors and you do not need to fix those tracks at all. But, do not worry about that, such software uses those ways decreasingly.
Normally, logical bad track is caused by improper using hard disk. For example, if the computer has to restart unexpectedly when hard disk is reading data, logical bad tracks are created probably at this moment. What is worse, it may even lead to physical bad tracks. In fact, you can use Windows disk tools to scan the whole disk and to fix errors automatically. The specific procedure is as follows:
In “My Computer”, you can right-click the drive letter, click “Properties”—“Tools”—“Check Now” and tick “Automatically fix file system errors” and “Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors”. At last, click “Start” and then everything is OK.
The scanning time is dependent on disk capability and scanning options. But you should be clear about that all the operating systems except Windows 98 do not display details of every sector. Therefore, it is wise for you to choose disk detecting tool of DOS—Scandisk. Such program can check every sector and mark the bad track to prevent operating system to visit this region any more. By doing this, it can guarantee to run system stably and restore data safely.
If you follow the steps mentioned above, the restored bad tracks still exit in the hard disk but just have been marked, so the system will not continue to visit it. However, since you keep on using hard disk, it is likely such bad tracks can expand. In this regard, to scan and mark the bad tracks can not eradicate this trouble. So, it is appropriate for you to back up disk data and rearrange partitions to format disk. commonly, if the problem of hard disk is just involved in logical bad track, to back up data is qualified enough to handle this problem completely. Of course, it is best that you apply Scandisk to detect hard disk again in DOS environment to make sure logical bad tracks are restored thoroughly after rearranging partitions and formatting disk.
In conclusion, to be honestly, the problem of hard disk is rather professional. You can have a try to fix them or let hard disk programs help you.
Protect Your Computer—the Main Causes of Blue Screen and How to Solve Them Correctly
Nov 27th
During using computer, if such accident happens, it is really a disaster for those beginners. But, do not worry. If you have learned the radical causes of blue screen, it may not be a problem for you any more. This is what I want to introduce to you in this article.
In fact, blue screen problem is mainly connected with memory capability, CPU frequency, CD-ROM, hard disk fragments and so forth. Since many reasons account for computer blue screen, I would like to explain some of them from the aspect of hardware. That is how to solve blue screen caused by hardware problems.
The low virtual memory leads to algorithm errors of system multitask.
Virtual memory is a special method that is designed for solving insufficient system resource in the Windows systems. Normally, it requires remain space in the hard disk is two to three times than that of physical memory. However, some computer fans would like to cram excessive stuff into their hard disks in order to make full use of them and turn a blind eye to the rigorous requirement of Windows that there should be enough disk space to support virtual memory. Therefore, due to low hard disk space, virtual memory can not run correctly and is troubled with algorithm errors which result in blue screen probably.
Well, it is rather easy to deal with such problem. You are supposed to delete the temporary and swap files produced by system and not to put too many files into hard disk so as to free up disk space. Or you can configure virtual memory manually. You can change the default address of virtual memory to other logical disks. In this way, computer can shun blue screen caused by insufficient virtual memory.
There is too small available disk space or too many fragments.
Generally speaking, the available space in the hard disk should be above of certain value, since different systems require values differently. Otherwise, the blue screen problem is likely linked to the size of available space. In addition, if there are too many fragments in the disk, it can lead to blue screen easily. Therefore, it is necessary to defragment disk at proper intervals.
You can turn to Windows defragmenting program, of course. But, if you want to speed up defragmentation and protect hard disk as well, I recommend you to use special defragmenting software called “Advanced Defrag”. You will satisfy with this program for sure.
CD-ROM is opened abnormally when reading disk.
Blue screen happens when the CD-ROM is reading the disk and is being operated mistakenly. But, such problem has little influence on system running. What you need to do is to use CD or press ESC. And everything is OK.
All in all, since blue screen can resulted from many reasons, you should protect your computer in all-round way and improve computer knowledge as much as you can.
How to speed up your computer —- Several methods to speed up your computer massively at startup
Nov 27th
Do you want to speed up your computer massively and enjoy faster computer speed all the time? To a large extent, a slow computer always results from a slow startup. Here, some methods will be discussed on how to greatly speed up your computer at startup.
Firstly, optimize BIOS settings
When booting up the computer, please continuously press “DEL” button to access the BIOS setting wizard, select “Advanced BIOS Feature”, and then “HDD-O”(that is, start from Hard drive) when you see “First Boot Device”; tick “Disable” within “ Above 1Mb Memor Test” and “Enable” within “ Quick Power ON Selftest”; then go to “ Advanced Chipset Feature”, change “ 8 ns/10 ns” to “Fats” or “Turbo” within “ Bank 0/1 DRAM Timing”. You can also change the parameter of “SDRAM CAS Latency” to “2”.
Secondly, optimize Desktop
Please remember not to store many files/folders on the desktop. And it is recommended that you can delete some useless desktop icons. Hence, there will be no need for the system to start too many things when booting up the computer to speed up your computer.
Thirdly, optimize startup programs
When starting up the computer, some programs or services will automatically start. Thus take up large amount of system resource and slow down the computer. So please go to Start -> Run -> type “msconfig” and press “Enter” to access “Services”. Here, please uncheck the programs that do not need to run at windows startup.
Fourthly, remove window boot screen
when booting up, the computer will take some time to load the window boot screen, which will a little slow down the computer. So you can first go to tick “Display contents of system folders” and “Show hidden files and folders” within My Computer/ Tools/ Folder Options/ View. And then go to search a file named “Msdos.sys” under drive C. After finding it out, right click it to select “Properties” and cancel its “Read-only” properties, then open it with Plain Text Editor, add “logo=0” at the end of the “Option” paragraph. Hence, it will a little speed up your computer at startup.
Last, regularly maintain system.
We know that too many installed programs will also become one main cause for a slower computer. So you need to periodically maintain the system with the packaged Maintenance Wizard within System Tools. Moreover, to speed up your computer, a simple disk defragmentation is needed, too.
With the above several methods, you can massively speed up your computer. But among all of them, lots of PC users will always ignore disk defragmentation, taking it for granted that it has nothing to do with the computer speed. That is wrong for a defragment process will help to rearrange the file locating on the hard disk and store all parts of a file always close together and contiguously. Only in this way, will it be much faster for the hard disk head to read or write some related data.
As what you see above, it is easy for you to speed up your computer in many ways. But please bear in mind that a disk defragmentation can not be neglected when trying to get a faster computer. Go to run one if you have never run it before!
Increase computer performance — Some knowledge about hard disk bad sector
Nov 27th
As we all know that there are many ways for us to increase computer performance, but if you have you never heard about hard disk bad sector before and how it affects the computer performance. It is necessary for you to be patient to read this article.
First, let’s have a glance at what bad sector is. As what it is called, a bad sector is one that cannot be used due to permanent damage like physical damage to the disk surface or failed flash memory transistors. Normally, it can be detected by some disk utility tools like Scandisk on Microsoft systems. When at this time, the data in those bad sectors may be lost, but the data on others’ won’t be affected, and it is also possible to use the disk.
When there are bad sectors on the hard disk, there must be serious problems occurring like problems when reading / writing data, or having shrill noise at startup. So some actions are needed to mark them out and automatically skip them to increase computer performance.
Though those bad sectors can not be repaired, you can mark them as unusable. Once they are marked as unusable, the Operating System will skip them when trying to store data on the hard disk. Below is what you can do:
1) Go to My Computer
2) Right click the drive you want to check to select “Properties”
3) Click “Tools” on the top and then “Check Now” button.
With the simple steps above, the bad sector on the hard disk will be checked and then marked out, hence increasing computer performance.
But this can not essentially solve the problem. To always enjoy a computer, you have to from some good habits while using computer from the below sides:
1) Do not suddenly turn off power when the hard disk is still working. Before turning off the power, first please make sure that the HDD LD has been off.
2) Remember that the hard disk must be well protected against dampness, moisture, shock and dust.
3) Make sure the hard disk is not always working at high-temperature (better to keep at 20-25℃).
With the methods above, you can extend the lifespan of the hard disk and maintain your computer performance. But when trying to maintain hard disk, please remember not to neglect the below side: disk defragmentation.
As we all know that disk fragments come unavoidably during the allocation of files / folders on the hard disk. The more fragments on the hard disk, the more time it will consume for the hard disk to input / output associated data. So a disk defragmentation can not be missed in order to rearrange the contents on the hard disk, making them always stay close together and coherently, therefore maintaining the hard disk and speeding up the computer.
In conclusion, it is necessary to know something about the hard disk bad sector when trying to increase computer performance. Though we can effort from different aspects to protect our hard disk, disk defragmentation should be the one that can not be neglected.
Optimize PC Performance—How Protect Hard Disk
Nov 26th
If you hope the computer can always work like new, you are supposed not to be too lazy to maintain your computer. As the storage of the computer, the hard disk like other computer parts also needs your careful maintenance. In this article, I would like to tell you how to protect hard disk in order to optimize PC performance.
In the first place, you should try to prevent bad tracks in the hard disk.
When starting up computer, it is impossible to pilot the hard disk even you use floppy disk or CD to start up computer, you can see those driver letter but cannot do any operations to this partition. If so, you should be aware that bad track is in it probably. Any bad track can damage hard disk, even it is just a cluster. On such condition, you should distinguish what kind of the bad track is and solve them respectively—run Scandisk program or replace and maintain it with retailer or manufacturer.
Secondly, you should pay close attention to guard against virus and Trojan programs. It is known to all that they are quite disaster for every part of computer. What is more, hard disk is the main objective of computer attacking virus. So, you should make use of anti-virus software to get rid of those viruses and maintain and back up important data and update such protecting programs in time. It is advisable for you not to use any unknown applications and to check virus and Trojan ahead of running them. The viruses are really headache for computer. You should prevent them from attacking the disks.
Thirdly, defragmentation is a good choice.
After using computer for a lot of time, due to the restoring and deleting of files, the files and available space have to become scattered in the hard disk. If you do not defragment them, the disk may reduce its restoring efficiency. And disk defragmenting program can put the files into continuous space and make the disk available space tidy and clean without taken up by fragments disorderly. You can start up the defragmenting program in the Windows or turn to third-party tools, such as “Advanced Defrag”.
Besides, you can let hard disk brainpower at rest.
If you can keep such function closed, it can do great help to facilitate hard disk working and expand using time. You can click “Control Panel” and choose “Power Management”. It is OK for you to set the time as fifteen minutes in the “Close down hard disk” column. It is better for you to protect the hard disk.
And for you, you should form a good habit of closing down computer correctly. The improper power shutdown can lead to violent attrition between disk head and disk surface. You should follow the normal computer closing down procedure. Any mistake or error in this regard may do harm to disk.
All in all, you should give your attention to daily hard disk maintenance. You can learn more ways to optimize PC performance.
Hard Disk Maintenance—How to Protect Hard Disk by Defragmentation
Nov 26th
Although your PC is still working very well for you, you can not treat it lightly. Computer is like all the other machines that needs careful and regular maintenance. Since there are many ways to optimize PC performance, I would like to introduce one of methods to help you improve computer performance.
As hard disk is storage of computer, you should learn how to do daily maintenance. When using computer, it is unavoidable for you to delete or copy a large number of files. Such operations are the main cause of producing plenty of fragments. And every complete file is restored separately in the disk. If system wants to fetch a file, it has to search the different parts of this file. So the computer has to spend more time in reading the file and increase operating time. Therefore, you should defragment your disks regularly so as to optimize PC performance.
You can use the defragmenting program of Windows to help you. Such tool can rearrange the files continuously so as to speed up disk reading and writing. It includes two functions: one is to clear up fragments and another is to start up optimization of items. Although they are quite practical, it really takes too much time to defragment completely. To be honestly, long-time and frequent defragmentation can do harm to disk and shorten the usage of hard disk as well. In this regard, I recommend you to use appropriative disk defragmenting software, such as “Advanced Defrag”.
Defragmentation is not only a good way to protect hard disk but also can optimize computer performance. It can collect those fragments and arrange orderly in the disks. At the same time, you should also make proper defragmenting schedule for disks. It is no doubt that too much defragmentation can do harm to disk and computer as well.
And, since using computer for a long time, there are certain troubles hidden in the disk. The lost of system files or damaged data are probably caused by bad disk tracks. Physical bad tracks may expand as more and more frequent read-write operations of disk head and result in an increasing number of bad tracks. At last, this disk with such bad tracks all over is unable to use any more. So, it is wise for you to back up important data in the disk as long as you find any bad track in it.
Well, bad hard disks track can divide into two kinds—soft and hard. You can fix the former problem by using certain software and continue to use the disk. But as for the latter one, it may expense certain disk space, even make the whole disk invalid. How to fix the two problems mentioned above? You can solve soft bad tracks by running the disk restoring tool of Windows or operating high level format to the disk, for example, you can right-click the disk drive and choose “Format” or right-click “My Computer”—“Manage”—“Disk Management”. But for hard disk problem, you have to turn to certain tools to help you.
In this regard, if you are not so skillful enough, you had better use special software to solve such problem.