Maintenance

Over time, a windows installation becomes bogged down and begins running more slowly. There are several issue that cause this and some can be fixed by doing basic computer maintenance. Some issues are due to virus or trojan infections that can be costly or time consuming to eradicate. However, if you are like me, you may find it easier to start fresh every so often. What most people don't realize is that you don't have to start from the ground up every time you want to reinstall windows.

A disk imaging utility creates a snapshot of your disk at any given time, with the operating system included. So, the idea with this is that you do a fresh installation of windows, do all of the windows updates, update your drivers, install any programs you want running such as Open Office, Skype, IM clients, etcetera and then create an image of the drive. Obviously, you aren't going to have the tools to make the image right off the bat. You will need software to create this snapshot of your drive.

The program that I would recommend for disk imaging is Acronis True Image. I have used it extensively and have found that it trumps the competition by far. It is significantly more reliable and when you're making images of your drive; you want a program that is reliable and going to make a non corrupt image the first time. There are many features with this program that freeware alternatives don't have. With Acronis, and I will talk more about this in future blogs, you have the ability of backing up individual folders as opposed to backing up the entire disk. So, it could not only be used as an imaging program, but double as a means of backing up your data reliably. At the end of the day, it comes down to how much your time and frustration is worth. When using Norton Ghost and some other free alternatives, I have found that images I write are sometimes corrupted. If you have a corrupted image, the program cannot write it to your drive meaning that you have to reinstall windows from scratch, defeating the point of the imaging software.

My recommendation to you is this: Bring your PC in and let me run a free diagnostic on your hard drive. If it passes the tests, I can backup all your user data (documents, pictures, music, movies) and make sure it's virus free. Then, reinstall Windows on your drive, do all the windows updates and update your hardware drivers, install any programs you would want, copy your data back onto the hard drive, optimize windows as much as possible, and then create an image of the drive for you on an external hard drive or a separate partition on your current hard drive. By doing this, you will have Windows exactly how you want it, with all your relevant data virus free, updated and optimized so you can restore it after a few months when your computer begins to low down, or whenever you might pickup a virus infection. The restore process is simple, just a click of a button, and only takes a short amount of time. In the long run, this method is not only easier and less frustrating, but less costly and saves you a significant amount of time.

If you need any help with doing this, please feel free to give me a call or stop into my office. Dog On Fire - Computer Repair is located in Fairhaven @ 1001 Larrabee Ave. See my website for a map and directions: http://www.Dog-On-Fire.com