Monday 14 February 2011

Software utilities and How they can improve your performance (P3, D1)

There are many programs the claim to improve the performance of your system, speed it up or protect it from malicious attacks. The easiest way to improve the speed of your computer is to use clean up tools.
The different operating systems offer different levels of clean up tools. Microsoft Windows offers the most and many come free with the OS. They use these rather than having to do the clean up codes yourself. It is advised that you run these clean up tools every week to utilize your PC and leave it running fast.
The main clean up tool used is the disk defragmentation tool which connects all the lose file end and connects them up. It does this as when a computer saves to a hard drive the file is written on whatever point the actuator arm is on the disk. This means that when you are opening a file the hard drive has to search for the beginning of the file and the various other parts of the file, meaning it takes longer to open the file. By defragging the disk you sort all the lose file ends and so when you load the files they are all together and the hard drive does not have to search through itself to load the file. This also means that the write space of your hard drive is being properly utilized as the normal method can mean it does not have as much space as it would if the files are complete and in order. Through this the system is speeded up as it does not have to hunt for the files when loading them.


Window Disk Defragmentation Tool

Another clean up tool is conveniently titled, the Disk Cleanup Tool. This tool is used for cleaning the drive of all unused and unwanted programs freeing up space for saving files that will actually be used. It permanently deletes the files so they are no longer stored on your system and taking time to boot up during your operating system loading. This will speed up your system as it does not have to boot files that it does not need or want to. You can specify the area that you wish to be scanned and cleaned so if you only have a few minutes you can only chose to clean up the temporary internet files, or if you have hours then you can do a complete drive clean up. Along with determining the location of the files you wish to clean you can also determine the drive letter meaning you do not have to do all the drive in that one day if you do not have the time to do so. By being able to choose what drive you wish to clean the data up from it makes it very easy when dealing with multiple computers on a network or on a server, but it still permanently deletes the files so they are not still stored; meaning your system will be quicker as a result.
Windows Cleanup Tool
Speeding up you computer can be as simple as running the Disk Cleanup Tool, to the more complicated method of re-formatting your drives. Before formatting your drive you must first run Windows backup tool and back all of your system on either a second hard drive (internal or external) or to a disk. By doing this you can be sure that if anything goes wrong during the formatting you have not lost all of your data. Then run the format using the Windows Formatting Tool, and re-format the original drive to the default settings it recommends. Once the tool has finished re-formatting the drive simply put in the disk or hard drive and transfer everything you want back on the system as it will no longer be able to read the data. Any errors are bugs on your system will have been erased meaning that your computer will run faster as it does not have lots of errors and bugs slowing it down.

Windows Formatting Tool

No comments:

Post a Comment