MetaPro Systems Inc.

Managing Your Hard Drives

It is important to manage your disk drives by running error checking and disk defragmentation on a regular basic. The tools available and how they are run will vary slightly among the various Windows operating systems: 95, 98, NT and 2000.

These options can be found by Double-clicking on My Computer then Right-clicking on the drive you wish to check. Then choose Properties and the Tab— Tools.

You will see the Error Checking Option for all operating systems. For Windows 95/98 there will be an indication as to how long it has been since the last time you checked. For 95/98, We recommend choosing Through and Automatically fix errors. For NT we recommend choosing both check boxes Automatically fix file systems errors and Scan for and attempt to fix bad sectors. The system will not always check for errors until you reboot (restart your computer). Failure to run error checking can eventually result in your hard drive crashing. How frequently you check for errors depends on factors including how intensely you use your machine. Between once a week and once a month is our recommendation.

Defragmentation will make it easier for your computer to access the files on the drive, thus your applications will run faster. For Windows 95/98 the operating system will recommend when it is time to run defrag. However, if you computer’s performance seems to be slowing down try to defrag anyway.

Windows NT does not come with a built in defrag program but there is a freeware program that we can recommend. It is called Diskkeeper Lite by Executive Software. Their web site is www.execsoft.co.uk. Once installed, this product will appear under the Tools tab.

Please note that this advice is of a general nature and may not apply to your situation. If you're not sure what to do, please talk to a consultant or someone you trust.