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Maintain hard drive to make it last longer, run faster in Microsoft Windows 7 Vista

Updated on January 19, 2016
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I write articles on desktop computers related to maintaining, upgrading, and repairing a desktop computer. I also writ articles on tablets.

Easily maintain a computer hard drive for faster speed and reliability.

Your computer hard drive can get slow over time if you do not maintain it by doing disk clean ups, scan disks, and disk defrags on a regular basis. A well maintained hard drive means Windows will run faster, so your programs and files open faster, and crash less because of hard drive problems.

Doing disk cleanups, scan disks, and disk defrags are simple, and don't require any extra Windows software which you need to buy and install on your computer since Windows have all the tools built-in to Windows.

In most cases, doing scan disks, disk defrags, and disk cleanups only take a few minutes to hours, and don't require much technical skills except for pressing a buttom once you open the program.

If you are willing to spend 20 dollars or less, you can also buy system utility software which will automatically do scan disks, disk defrags, and disk clean up by scheduling disk maintenance at a certain time, or when the computer is not doing anything.

All Mechanical hard drives which uses the Windows operating system benefit from increase speed and reliability after you run a disk clean up, scan disk, and disk defrag at least once a month or more.

Hard drive maintenance keeps your hard drive running fast, and reliably
Hard drive maintenance keeps your hard drive running fast, and reliably

Why is it important to maintain your hard drive?

Better performance, reliability and more space to use.

By maintaining your hard drive, your hard drive can open files faster after you defrag your hard drive which organize your most used files to the fastest part of your drive which make opening files faster.

Doing scan disks help to fix problems with your hard drive, so it fixes errors on your hard drives. Errors on your drive can make your computer less reliable, crash more, and slower. Scan disk can also recover bad sectors on your hard drive.

Disk Clean up deletes junk files like temporary internet files to make Windows and your hard drive have more free space. Having more free space let you store more files, and faster. Disk defrag also needs about 20% free space to defrag your hard drive properly.

Your hard drive will last longer and have more free space when you do or schedule disk maintenance for your drive.

System Utility for maintaining your hard drive and Windows operating systems - System utility software is great for people who don't have a lot of time to maint

System Utility software automatically or with one-click of a button scans and repair your computer of disk fragmentation, disk errors, junk files to delete, and other hard drive and windows related errors.

Using System Utility software for Windows is the best way to maintain your hard drive, Windows, and computer because system utility software software is automatic, or very easy to use for most PC users. In many cases, you just need to install it, and let it run in the background to maintain your hard drive, Windows, and your computer.

System Utility software like Tune Up Utilities 2012 is great for all computer users because it saves time, and is easy to use for most PC owners.

System Utility software can also save you money since some warns you if your computer is not updated, and protected from the latest viruses and spyware. System Utility software can also fix problems which you are having with Windows automatically or with one click of a button.

More advance system utility software also have Antivirus and Antispyware programs which automatically protects your computer from viruses, spyware, and scammers.

Disk Clean up Software - Cleaning up your computer disk will give your hard drive more free space, and run faster

Your hard drive collect temporary files which can make Windows slower, and use up more free space which give you less usable space. The temporary files come from browsing the web, and programs which make .tmp files to store temporary files in the TEMP and Cache folders.

If you have too many temporary files, they can fill up your entire drive making disk defrag, and your computer slower.

CCleaner, Bleachbit, Glary Utilities, Temporary File Cleaner, and Windows Disk Cleanup are all temporary files which you can use to remove temporary files from your PC.

Most Disk Cleanup programs are easy to use. All you do is press the Analyze, and Clean button to do a disk clean up. It usually only takes a few seconds to minutes to clean up junk files from your hard drive to free up space.

Disk Defrag Software for Windows - Disk Defrag software software organizes your files for faster access to your hard drive.

During Disk Defrags, your files are organize to the fastest area of your hard drive, so you can access them faster the next time you open them.

It is recommended to defrag your hard drive when it is 10-20+% fragmented when you check your hard drive for fragmentation with your disk defrag programs.

Windows Disk Defrag, Auslogic Disk Defrag, Iobit Smart Defrag, Piriform Deffragler and Diskeeper are all disk defrag software which you can use to defrag your hard drive.

Usually, you just click the Analyze button to on the disk defrag program to see if your drive needs to be defrag, and if it does, you press the defrag button on the disk defrag program to defrag it. It usually takes a few minutes to hours to defrag your hard drive.

Solid State Drives also called SSD, and Flash Memory drives like SD cards, USB flash drives, and non-moving hard drives do not need to be defrag, and derfraging SSDs and Flash memory will make it break faster because SSD and Flash memory only have a limited amount of write cycles.

Windows Scan Disk - Scan for errors, and bad sectors and tries to fix them, so your hard drive works better

Scan disk check for File System errors on your hard drive, and also try to recover bad sectors on your hard drive. It also repairs cross linked files.

You can access the default scan disk in Windows which you access by going to

1.My Computer, and right-clicking the hard disk drive you want to scandisk with your mouse.

2.Click Properties from the right click menu, and click Tools tab.

3.Click Error-checking, and click Check Now.

If you are checking C drive or your Windows drive which Windows is installed on, you would need to restart your computer if Windows finds errors, so Windows can fix the errors.

I recommend using the scan disk on system utility software like TuneUp Utilities, and Advance System Care because it is easier to use, and faster. Plus, in many cases, it is automatic, so you don't need to do scan disk manually like the steps above.

GRC Spinrite - Best preventative maintenance tool for your hard drive - GRC Spinrite the best tools for maintaining your hard drive from degrading over time

It checks your hard drive for bad sectors, and try its best to move data on bad sectors to a good sector, and it also checks your drive to see how healthy it is.

It also maintains the surface of your drive, and correct errors.

Spinrite can also fix data problems on your drive which reduces the chances of problems related to data.

It is recommend to run Spinrite every few months.

Spinrite can also be used to try to recover unreadable data from a drive which can't read the data anymore.

Check out Spinrite at grc.com/sr/spinrite.htm

Clean your computer inside to keep it from overheating.
Clean your computer inside to keep it from overheating.

Keeping the inside of your computer case clean to keep your hard drive from overheating

dust, dirt, and lint inside your computer can make your hard drive and other parts overheat making them break sooner.

The dust, dirt, and lint which gets suck into your computer via your computer cooling fans can make your computer overheat, and last not as long because heat is not good for your computer.

You can use a computer vacuum, or compress air to remove dust from your computer by sucking or blowing it out.

I recommend the Metro Vacuum ED500 DataVac 500-Watt 0.75-HP Electric Duster 120-Volt to clean your computer since it is safer then compress air, and you can use it over and over again unlike canned air which can blow very cold air at your PC, and a can of air have a limited amount of air compared to the Metro Vacuum which won't run out of air since all it needs is power.

on a lense I made on computer maintenance to extend your computers life. The lense also talks about the importance of replacing a bad or failing power supply which will supply dirty power to your computer and hard drive which can break the internal parts, or shorten its life if your power supply is failing/broken.

A Room air filter or air cleaner will also improve the air quality of your room which will make the inside of your computer cleaner, so you won't have to clean it as much, and you breathe cleaner air yourself.

I recommend the APC BE550G Backup-UPS ES 8 Outlet 550VA 120V which will protect your computer from unwanted shut downs because the battery in the UPS will keep your computer powered on during a power outage, or brown out while also protecting your computer from power surges, and spikes.

Sudden power off, power surges, and spikes are not good for your hard drive, computer hardware, and computer. They can also cause data corruption, and other computer related problems like hardware failure, so using a backup UPS power supply will protect your computer, and hard drive from problems caused by power problems.

Replacing failing hard drive controllers and cables on your desktop PC. - sometimes the hard drive controller card, and hard drive cables fail, and need to be r

Hard drive controllers are the plugs on the inside of your computer's circuit board which is used to connect your hard drive to your computer, so you can use your hard drive on your computer.

The hard drive cable is needed to connect your computer to your hard drive.

Sometimes, the cable and controller is broken, or failing which can make your hard drive not work, or work not very well. If you notice your computer randomly freezes, is very slow, and sometimes your computer pauses, your hard drive light on the front of your computer case is always on even though your hard drive is not reading or writing anything, your hard drive is always reading something,you see a lot of hard drive related error messages in Windows event viewer, video playing slowerly at random times, or your PC can't start up could mean your hard drive controller or hard drive cable is failing, and needs to be replaced. I recommend replacing your hard drive cable first to see if you need to replace the cable since the hard drive cable is cheaper, and easier to replace. You can't replace the hard drive controller on your motherboard, but you can easily buy a PCI expansion card to plug your hard drive into to use as a Hard drive controller for your hard drive instead of using your motherboard hard drive controller.

There are two types of cables and controllers which are most in used. SATA cables which are smaller, and controllers are used on newer hard drive. IDE/PATA controller and cables which are like ribbons are used on older hard drive.

Replacing a IDE or SATA cable, and Hard drive controller is easy. In most cases, all you need is a philips screwdriver to open your case, and screw in a controller card to the side of your case on a PCI slot.

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