Tips for speeding up your computer rpw consulting LLC http

). Make sure this command is typed correctly before proceeding. This is very, very important. 5) Press the Enter key after del *.tmp /s. Ryan P. Walker rpw consulting, LLC Page 4 of 9 Tips for speeding up your computer Tips for speeding up your computer rpw consulting, LLC http://www.rpwconsulting.net 6) You should see a list of files scroll in the command prompt window. If files are currently in use by an application or process, those files may not be deleted and return the error Access Denied. That is not a problem. Some files may remain, but most will be removed. The command listed above told the computer to delete all files that end with the *.tmp extension and look for those files in all subdirectories, not just the current directory. Deleting “Dump” Files Dump files are created when the computer has encountered a serious error. When a serious error occurs, Microsoft Windows will attempt to take all the information in the computer’s memory and write it to a file. The file created is called the “dump” file. The program that writes this dump file is called Dr. Watson, so it is sometimes referred to as a Dr. Watson error or a Dr. Watson file. Occasionally, these files can be very large. They may not slow down the computer, but they can use up a lot of drive space. By removing the dump files some hard drive space can be freed up. Dump files always end with the “.dmp” file extension. CAUTION: Never delete dump files if the problem is going to be analyzed by Microsoft. The dump file can be used by Microsoft to determine why the error is occurring. Do not delete dump files unless you are sure the files will not be used by Microsoft for analysis (unless a professional computer person is involved, you will most likely not need these files). 1) Click on Start > All Programs > Accessories > Command Prompt. 2) In the Command Prompt window, type cd\ to go to the root of the C drive. 3) Your prompt should now look like C:\>. 4) At the C:\> prompt, type del *.dmp /s. (In spoken language that command would be

). Ryan P. Walker rpw consulting, LLC Page 5 of 9 Tips for speeding up your computer Tips for speeding up your computer rpw consulting, LLC http://www.rpwconsulting.net 5) Press the Enter key after del *.dmp /s. 6) This command may delete only one or two files, or it may not delete any files at all. The command listed above told the computer to delete all files that end with the *.dmp extension and look for those files in all subdirectories, not just the current directory. Defragment the Hard Drive Over time, as more files are added to the hard drive and some files are removed, empty “holes” begin showing up between files. If a large file is written to the hard drive, it may not be able to fit entirely into one of the empty “holes.” In that case, part of the file may be written to the hole and part of the file may be written to another part of the hard drive. When the file is needed, the computer must then go and retrieve all of the parts of the file. By defragmenting the hard drive those parts of the large file are all written close to each other on the drive, allowing the file to be retrieved much faster. Defragmenting the hard drive will usually take a long time if the drive is very fragmented already. It is recommended to start defragmenting the hard drive before going to bed or when you don’t plan to use the computer for a long period of time (several hours). To Defragment the hard drive: 1) Click on Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Disk Defragmenter. 2) On the Disk Defragmenter window, click on (C:), then click the Analyze button. Ryan P. Walker rpw consulting, LLC Page 6 of 9 Tips for speeding up your computer Tips for speeding up your computer rpw consulting, LLC http://www.rpwconsulting.net 3) A smaller window will appear to let you know if Windows recommends running a “defrag” job on this drive or not. 4) You can choose to Defragment the drive, even if Windows doesn’t think it is needed. 5) Click Close to close the smaller window. 6) After the analyze portion is complete, you will be able to see how defragmented the drive is. The more red you see, the more the drive is fragmented and the longer the “defrag” will take. 7) Click on the Defragment button to begin the defrag job. Ryan P. Walker rpw consulting, LLC Page 7 of 9 Tips for speeding up your computer Tips for speeding up your computer rpw consulting, LLC http://www.rpwconsulting.net 8) Remember, this could take long time (from a few minutes to 4 or 5 hours). 9) When the defrag job is complete, you should see a visible representation of the difference in the lower, colored portion of the Disk Defragmenter window. 10) Close the Disk Defragmenter window when the defrag job is complete. Check Hard Disk for Errors and Fix Occasionally data can be written to bad parts of the hard drive, causing the data to be lost or causing the computer to waste time trying to retrieve the data from that bad sector. Microsoft includes a utility that can be run on the hard drive to detect and fix (or just mark as bad) any bad sectors on the hard drive. This scan is pretty intensive and cannot be run while Windows is up. The command must be started from Windows, and then, when the computer is rebooted, the disk is checked for errors before Windows boots up. CAUTION: This disk check takes a long time, and the computer cannot be used while the check is running. Once the check begins, it is recommended to let it run to completion. Do not stop the check before it is complete. Serious disk corruption could occur, causing loss of data and completely crashing the computer. To run the Disk Check utility: 1) Click on Start > All Programs > Accessories > Command Prompt. 2) In the Command Prompt window, type C: and press the Enter key. 3) Type cd\ and press the Enter key. Ryan P. Walker rpw consulting, LLC Page 8 of 9 Tips for speeding up your computer Tips for speeding up your computer rpw consulting, LLC http://www.rpwconsulting.net 4) Type chkdsk /R and press the Enter key. 5) When asked about scheduling the volume to be checked the next time the system restarts, type y and press the Enter key. 6) Close the Command Prompt window. 7) Click on Start > Shut Down and choose to Restart the computer. 8) When the computer is booting up, the Check Disk program will begin. Remember: Do not stop the Check Disk program once it has started. You will need to let the program run until it completes on its own. After the Check Disk program is complete, the computer will reboot again on its own. When Microsoft Windows finishes loading, you can log back in to the computer. Author Contact Information Ryan P. Walker rpw consulting, LLC http://www.rpwconsulting.net ryan@rpwconsulting.net 770-630-5818 Ryan P. Walker rpw consulting, LLC Page 9 of 9 Tips for speeding up your computer