Keep your hard drive secure, error-free, and organized for maximum speed

The most important thing to do on a Windows 2000 or XP computer is to properly Shut Down your computer. Failure to do this can lead to crashes, file corruption, and data loss. Shutting down your computer each night and for the weekend also helps prevent computer hackers from finding your idle computer and taking over your computer to use as a file server or “attack” computer.

Use the Error-checking (ScanDisk) and Defragmentation utility programs that come with Windows to correct potential problems and keep data arranged for optimum performance.

To use these utilities, restart your computer and exit or disable all programs running in memory. Icons for these programs are found in the system tray (right side of the Windows Taskbar with the clock). To disable Sophos:

1. Right-click on the Sophos shield icon in the system tray.
2. In the shortcut menu Left click on Open Sophos Anti-Virus.
3. In the Sophos Anti-Virus window, click on “Configure Sophos Anti-Virus.”
4. Click on “On-access scanning.”
5. In the ‘On-access scan settings for this computer’ dialog box, uncheck the “Enable on-access scanning for this computer” option.
6. Click on OK and answer Yes to the warning message.
7. Close the Sophos Anti-Virus window. NOTE: The Sophos icon is now grayed out.

To run each utility, open Windows Explorer or My Computer and right-click on the drive C: icon. Choose Properties from the shortcut menu, then select the Tools tab in the Properties dialog box (see image at right).

To run the Error-checking/ScanDisk utility, click on the Check Now button in the Error-checking section. ScanDisk will help diagnose and correct filing system errors and physical disk problems, if they exist, or report that there are no problems. When running ScanDisk, DO NOT use the “Automatically fix errors” option — depending on the error reported, you may need to contact your unit computer support person for follow-up action.

As your hard drive fills up, a large file may be saved in multiple sections (fragmented) on different parts of the drive. The Disk Defragmentation utility will defragment all files so that each file exists as one, contiguous unit. This helps maintain optimum performance. Click on the Defragment Now button to run this utility. NOTE: You should run the Defragment utility even if the message says it is unnecessary to run it.

When you are finished running these two utilities, restart the on-access scanning feature of Sophos by following the steps given above and check the “Enable” option.

With Windows 2000 or XP it is recommended that you run these utilities every 1-3 months. Depending on your hard drive size and number of problems encountered, each program will take 15 minutes to 1 hour or more to run.

Now you should be working with a clean, efficient computer. To help keep your computer clean and running efficiently, set your Sophos program to update daily (or more often), install all Windows updates from Microsoft as soon as available, and DON’T open any unexpected attachments or e-mail notes from unknown addresses!

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 Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources (IANR)
 University of Nebraska-Lincoln
 Last updated July 27, 2007