Computer

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How to Erase Hard Disk Drive

Posted by admin on 07 Feb 2008 | Tagged as: CDRom, Computer, Drivers, Hardware, Operating System

If you are currently preoccupied with questions such as “how to erase hard disk drive?”, then I think I will not have to make much of an effort to conclude that your computer system has failed completely and needs a reboot. I say so because apart from a complete system crash, there aren’t that many reasons that justify erasing a hard disk drive. Now, coming to the main point, I would like to tell you that erasing a hard disk drive is quite easy and all you need is some basic knowledge about installation procedures and a CD of Windows Operating System.

The answer to how to erase hard disk drive is basically a step-by-step Windows reinstallation process that starts with turning on your computer and inserting the Windows CD into your CD/DVD drive. After this, you need to switch off and restart your computer and keep pressing any of the keys on your keyboard. This signals your computer to boot itself from the CD. When you do this, you will see the Windows GUI (Graphic User Interface) on your screen, which will provide you with options and help you in selecting the one that you might need.

If you keep following the instructions, you will eventually come across the option of deleting partitions of your hard drive, making new partitions and reformatting each of the selected partitions. You can say that you have succeeded in erasing your hard disk drive when you have performed all the three procedures as described above, one after the other. After this, you can be sure that your hard disk drive is completely clean and ready for the installation of Windows Operating System.

Erasing the hard disk drive also removes viruses and other malicious software codes that might have contributed to the system crash in the first place. It is the most effective way of bringing your computer back to its original state, although you might have to sacrifice some of your data that might be stored on your hard disk drive.

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How to Reformat a Hard Drive

Posted by admin on 05 Feb 2008 | Tagged as: Computer, DOS, Hardware, Reformat, Windows

Trying to find an answer to how to reformat a hard drive? Well, before I actually tell you that, I would first like to shed some light on the repercussions of such a move. The first thing I would like to tell you is that when you reformat a hard drive what happens is that all the data that might be there on the drive gets erased automatically. You may already be well aware of this, but I am not to be blamed because I am quite sure that there are thousands out there who don’t have a clue. I am just taking the right precautions because I don’t want people chasing me down for the loss of important files and folders that they might have had in their hard drives.

For reformatting secondary partitions on your hard drive, you just have to right click on that particular partition, select the format option and click on ‘start’. However in case you wish to reformat your entire hard drive, then you will require a CD of Windows Operating System or a bootable MS-DOS Floppy or CD. Both of these will force your system to boot from the CD and all you will be required to do is follow the instructions and keep selecting the options that you need. Eventually you will come across the format option, which will prompt you to select between NTFS and FAT file formatting. Since NTFS is the advanced file allocation system, I would recommend that you select NTFS.

What you wish to do with your reformatted hard drive is up to you, but the one thing you can be pretty sure of is that the hard drive will then be completely clean and ready for use. When you finally install Windows, you will notice that your system on the whole, has also become a lot faster and smarter.

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Disk Defragmenter

Posted by admin on 03 Feb 2008 | Tagged as: Computer, Configuration, Control Panel, Defragmenter, Hardware, Windows

Disk defragmenter is an application that comes installed with the Windows Operating System. The main function of this software utility is to speed up the performance of your computer and also to maximize storage space utilization of your hard drive. For using this utility, you just have to click on Start > Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Disk Defragmenter. You can also access this utility by clicking on “My Computer” and selecting ‘Manage’ from the available options.

After this, you just have to select the Drive or Drives that you want to defrag and click on the ‘Defragment’ button. After this you just need to sit back and relax while the defragmenter does the job for you. You should do this preferably at night because Defragmentation can take several hours depending on the amount of data that you might have on your hard drive.

Using Disk defragmenter from time to time is necessary because as you continue to add and remove files and folders, your hard drive becomes a virtual war zone, scattered with bits and pieces of data everywhere. This slows down your system obviously because the operating system has to work harder to access the data stored in your hard drive.

Using an un-fragmented drive is like reading a book whose pages are strewn all over the floor. In this context, what Disk defragmenter does is that it picks up all the pages from the floor and arranges them together according to the page numbers. In real terms, the defragmenter rearranges files and folders in such a way that it helps in boosting the computer’s processing speed and maximizing space utilization.

For getting the best results, I would recommend that you close all other running programs before starting the Defragmentation process. This would help the Disk Defragmenter to make the most appropriate file allocations and last but not the least, complete the defrag in the shortest possible time.

Defragging your hard drive

Posted by admin on 03 Feb 2008 | Tagged as: Computer, Configuration, Hardware, Operating System, Uncategorized, Windows

The term ‘defragging’ is actually a technical jargon that refers to the “Disk Defragmenter” option available in Windows Operating System. The basic purpose of defragging is to speed up the performance of your computer by arranging files and folders as stored on your hard drive in the most appropriate manner.

Defragging also helps in making the best possible utilization of storage space as might be available on your hard drive. To be able to defrag, you will have to click on Start > Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Disk Defragmenter. You can also right click on “My Computer” and select ‘Manage’, to get to the Disk Defragmenter option.

To understand how defragging actually works, you first need to have a look at the file allocation system as used by Windows. What Windows does is that it formats your hard drive into thousands of small data clusters that are usually 512 bytes or characters. All your files and folders are stored in these data clusters, but since Windows randomly selects the actual storage point, your hard drive ends up with files and folders that are haphazardly stored all over the place.

Just try imagining reading a book whose pages are strewn all over your home and you will know how difficult it actually is for Windows to read from an un-fragmented hard drive. Defragging in turn would represent your efforts to pick up individual pieces of the book and arrange them in a proper sequence according to the page numbers.

Defragging is something that you need to do from time to time, at least once every quarter. You can do it more frequently if you want, but since doing so every other day will not make much of a difference to your computer’s performance, I would never recommend this. Moreover, since defragging can take several hours depending on the amount of data in your hard drive, I would recommend that you start the Defragmentation process at night. Leave it overnight and when you wake up you will find a computer that’s much faster and smarter.

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