PC Best Practices, Maintenance and Approach

GWC Community Geek Hobbies
#1

So, as I sit here reinstalling my main computer at home due to a corrupt .dll that killed the startup process you may wonder why I am not cursing the gods and shaking my first ruefully while intermittently sobbing like a little girl…

…no, it isn’t because I regularly backup (which I do), it is because of a simple approach I take to how I manage my computer’s files. Simply put, I have two internal drives. Not two partitions, two physically separate drives.

C: Program files and OS ONLY
D: Data ONLY

Why is this so important? Well, for situations such as the one I have zero fear of data loss. (well, maybe a 3% fear, but I am paranoid). Basically I can wipe the C drive with impunity knowing that all of my unique data (mp3s, pics, docs, etc) are safely nestled on my D drive. Even in the worst case scenario of physical drive failure on C, all I have to do is swap it out and I am good to go.

With the cost of drives so low it makes a lot of sense to take this approach. If you are diligent you can live worry free. There are a couple of important things you should do, first and foremost being relocating user profiles to D. They will default to C. This clearly is not a good idea as it breaks the model.

<save this space to document how to change the default location of user MY DOCUMENTS, Desktop, etc>

Any thots or things any of you would add to PC best practices?

#2

I would recommend setting up a macro that automatically changes the spelling of “thought” to “thot”.
But I see you’ve already done that.:slight_smile:
great, I can see this post getting moved the the stupid and assinine thread lickedly split.[SIZE=“1”][/SIZE]

Here’s a question: How often should I defrag my system?

#3

Yeah: get a Mac.

Not (entirely) being a smartass here. Similar situation on my Mac? Boot it as a target disc, recover data, reinstall stuff. (I run two partitions as a rule, but not on notebooks where the flexibility is paramont.)

I’m guessing there’s a way to do the same on a PC, only it’s more complicated (and Apple has started to depricate Firewire without offering a suitable replacement, so we may have parity again.)

#4

Honestly, I am not sure what impact defragging has on modern systems. I defrag about once a quarter, but I never see a significant change in speed the way you would with say a 486 computer.

Can’t hurt tho. More important is to clean out temp files, both on the root and in the Windows temp folder. That can slow you down a bit.

#5

Thanks. My new computer (Dell Latitude) (new as of July last year) isn’t slow at all—I love the snappiness compared to my sluggish old 2003 Dell Inspirion.
I just remember hearing that it’s health to defrag the disk every now and then.

#6

I would also recommend running Windows Defender, Spybot Search & Destroy & SuperAntiSpyware

All of those programs are free. With the 3 of them combined most malware/spyware does not last long on my system. I run all 3 roughly the first of every month.

#7

Defragging is soooooo 1995. :wink:
Much better for your hard drive is running Spinrite. A must have for emergencies and if you run a few times a year can really add life to your HD.

Solai is right on with the two partitions. I began doing this after my first re-format and it saves a lot of time. I also use two separate systems, lets say a “clean” and a “dirty” one. All personal stuff like finances, online shopping, email and the like are done on the clean machine. All other low security, risky web surfing, or beta testing related stuff are on the dirty machine which can be easily reformatted without the worry of losing anything important.

Keep your system updated!
Don’t open e-mail attachments unless you know why it was sent to you and by a trusted source. Even if you trust the person, if the e-mail looks suspicions or odd, stay away!

Don’t click on pop ups!

Run Firefox! It is the safest web browser and with extensions it is even better. Running Ad block to help reduce pop ups and with No Script to stop scripting except on sites you trust, one can really minimize the risk of infection. Practicing safe surfing habits is the best way to protect yourself. By paying attention to what you click on you can prevent many problems. I am wary of any ad, even if it is from a company I know.

I like AVGs free antivirus scanner and Microsoft has a Malicious Removal Tool that works really well if you know you have a infection. If you update, it should already be on your system. You can run it easily by typing MRT into the run command line.

#8

If you are infected, Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware (http://www.malwarebytes.org/) is one of the only products I know of that successfully disable spyware. Note, if you’re infected, you’re never getting rid of viruses/spyware - best to reinstall (something will almost always be left behind)