System Maintenance Advice

Even the Best Operating System Needs Maintenance.

Yes, even Linux. But for our Windows OS, doubly so. With thousands of files being open and closed, and tens to hundreds being written to just to get Windows XP booted, there's plenty of room for a mistake. Just 1 bit off in a write can spell death to a program. Here are some maintenance utilities and tips I swear by, not at.

System File Restore Software.

The best little utility you didn't know you already had! Yes folks, down inside windows there is a little utility called "System File Check" and it can take a crotchety, buggered up system, and make it act like new again. No, this is not a guarantee, it's just experience. Most system files get damaged with just time, and use, unplanned shutdowns, software errors that wrote across the wrong sector (and caused a Blue Screen of Death, which didn't allow the OS even a chance to fix the problem). But not all is lost, and it has nothing to do with the cruddy, infection prone system restore! Here's how to do it!

  1. Get out your Windows XP CD, and place it in your CD-ROM drive. (bar this, the files needed may be on your hard-drive already, as in the case of some name brand systems that don't ship with true OS install CDs. However, if those files get damaged, you are SOL, complain to your PC manufacturer.)
  2. Go to Start menu, click Run.
  3. Type this EXACTLY how you see it on the next line, or, cut and paste it into the box,
    sfc /scannow
    the space between the "sfc" and the "/scannow" is important.
  4. Wait for awhile while it goes and checks for faulty files. This CAN take a serious amount of time, go pop some popcorn, and get a soda.
  5. Once the program exits (and it should without interaction, or perhaps at most a couple of "Retries"... anything else suggests a serious problem, and you should seek a live tech.) Remove your XP CD from the drive, and reboot.

Bullet-proof Boot Sector via Use of a Floppy.

Have you ever heard of, or have been unlucky enough to have a Windows XP computer that started with the message "Operating system missing, Press any key to try again." or "NTLDR is Missing, Press any key to restart" ? This error is pretty much telling you that the most important files on the system have been destroyed, or one is missing. But, there is a way to avoid this.

You can make a bullet-proof, daily use boot floppy. This does not affect the ability of your machine to boot without a floppy. If your machine is old enough to have a floppy drive, or you had one laying around that you installed for whatever reason, stick a sacraficable or blank floppy in the drive, and follow these commands exactly. NOTICE: Failure to do this absolutely correctly could mess up your machine. The benefits are great, but so is the risk if you are not comfortable working in a command prompt.

  1. Start the command prompt by going to Start, then clicking Run, and then entering in the box "cmd" (without quotes).
  2. In the box that opens type...
    format a:
    When it asks if you want to format another, enter "N"
  3. Input these commands, with spaces in place, in order.
    xcopy c:\boot.ini a: /h
    xcopy c:\ntdetect.com a: /h
    xcopy c:\ntldr a: /h
  4. Remove floppy.
  5. Slide the write protect tab to open the little window (write protected).
  6. Repeat steps 1-5 with a second floppy.
  7. Label 1 floppy EMERGENCY XP BOOT DISK and place with your offline backup hard-drive or DVDs, and label the other XP DAILY BOOT DISK.
  8. Leave the daily one in your drive.

This may also work to boot a dead machine that didn't make the floppy. But there may be enough differences in XP builds that it may not work. It is best to have one already made on the machine you intend to use it on.

System Control and Monitoring Software.

Have you ever wondered what programs are running on your computer? Ever wonder what internet adresses program X is connecting to? If you are comfortable with messing with your machine on a fairly intimate level, get Process Explorer from Microsoft. It's like task manager on steroids.

Not only is it like task manager, it can replace task manager completely, and has a setting in it's options menu to do so. There is just so much it can do, better than, and with more options than the stock task manager, that I won't mention them all here. I just recommend you get it.

Hard Disk Maintenance Software.

All the protection in the world won't help a lick if you let your hard drive go to pot! There are 3 main tools necessary to do this, 2 in windows, and one you have to download.

1. Disk Cleanup, Under Start/Programs/Accessories/System Tools... run it, and check what you would like to get rid of. The more complex a hard drive's structure is, the more catastrophic any failure is!

2. CHKDSK. Click Start, then Run... enter this exactly how you see it on the next line, or copy and paste it in...

chkdsk C: /f /v /r

Then hit enter, and when it asks if you would like to schedule a repair for the next reboot, press "y" on your keyboard. It will then close the window. Now, as soon as you have up to 4 hours to burn (or more if you have a monster C: drive), reboot, it may only take 10 minutes, may take much longer, but when it's done, all soft correctable errors on your drive should be fixed. If not (done by running it a second time), your hard drive is failing and should be replaced ASAP!

3. JK Defrag. A free, and very good defragmenting program. It's not a very user friendly program, and requires some reading of the documentation to get working the way you want it, but it is so worth it. It also can function as a "intermediate" screen-saver, quickly touching up its work from the last time when the screen-saver comes on, exiting to any other screensaver of your choice when it's done. Or, if not enough time has gone by since the last time it ran, it just runs the second screensaver.

Not only does it defragment the files, it optimizes them by placing them in neat order on the disk. Using the one that comes with windows can actually make your hard drive's condition worse, as it does not place the files in neat order and close up the gaps between them, thus causing instant fragmentation with he next file of any good size written to the disk. JK Defrag is real fast too, (as far as optimizers go).

Why do you need to optimize? Let me explain in parable form.

Imagine that your computer is a child, your hard drive his toy-box, and the files on it are his toys. He will take the toys out, and play with them to his hearts content, and when he puts them back, if he puts them back at all, he does it sloppily. They no longer fit well, and the lid won't close!

A disk optimizer program is like having mommy come into the room, and making the computer take out all the toys, and put them back in, neatly... Legos in this box, Lincoln Logs in the next, and Erector Set in yet the other, then all the stuffed animals, puppets, and plastic swords neatly on top of those. Everything fits now, and junior can find what he wants to play with tomorrow, fast and efficiently!

So go get JK Defrag, and put her to work... your PC misses his mommy.

More will be added as time and inspiration allows... ~Mike