By maintaining your desktop hard drive, it will generally run faster, and last longer over time. Plus, you’ll have more free space, and better performance. Maintaining your desktop hard drive is not very hard to do since all you have to do is run disk clean up and disk error check on a weekly or monthly basis depending on how often you use your computer, and what you use it for. Disk defrags are usually scheduled by default to defrag your hard drive when needed with most disk defrag programs like the Windows 7 disk defrag program, or 3rd party disk defrag program like the bundled disk defrag program which comes with TuneUp Utilities 2012.
Disabling start up programs, closing un-needed programs in your taskbar, and system tray may also increase your hard drive space since your computer will have more free RAM which is “Random Access Memory”, so your computer won’t need to rely on your hard drive as much for Virtual RAM for the page/swap file, so your hard drive won’t be working as heavily when you are using it. Installing more RAM like 4GB of RAM would make your computer use more of your RAM for storing files which are using, and make multi-tasking faster on your computer because your computer won’t rely as much on your hard drive’s virtual memory which is slower then RAM. You can also close Tabs on your web browsers, and applications which you are not using to make your computer have more free RAM.
There are some viruses, and spyware which can make your computer hard drive move a lot which is not good because over time it can make your drive motors, and mechanical parts wear down over time. Some viruses, and spyware also may be used to store other people’s files, so it can make your hard drive has less free space to store your own files, and some of the files may contain indecent pictures, illegal content, or harm your computer. It is best to use a good antivirus like AVG 2012 Internet Security to automatically protect you from the latest virus and spyware programs which can fill your hard drive full of junk files while making your PC less safe to use.
You can get TuneUp System Utilities 2012 and AVG 2012 Internet Security for under 50 dollars to keep your hard drive automatically well maintained, free of junk files taking up space, and protected from the latest virus infections. TuneUp 2012 also makes Windows faster by turning off programs which come bundled with Windows which slow your computer down.
By using TuneUp 2012 your computer will have more free space for storing important files like movies, documents, photos, programs, and music rather then less important files like your internet history, temporary system and internet files, and Windows programs which you don’t need or never use.
It is also important to back up your computer files to DVD, CD, or an USB external hard drive since all hard drive can break without warning sometimes. At least, you have a copy of your important files on your backup drive if your hard drive fails.
If your computer case fans are failing, you should replace them with new ones since the case fans are used to make sure your hard drive and all the other components inside your computer case will not over heat when your computer is on.
Also, use a surge protector to protect your hard drive along with your entire computer from surges caused by power spikes. If you want to protect your computer from improper shut downs caused by power outages, you can get a Uninterrupted power supply which is like a giant battery which keeps your computer on for a few minutes to hours depending on the size of the battery. UPS also protect your computer from power surges
If your power supply inside your computer is failing, or not working well, you should replace it to prevent your power supply from damaging your computer.