3 quick XP questions

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HistoryFan

Hello. I'm a new Windows XP Home Edition user. Three quick questions, if I
may:

1) Power scheme. It's always been my understanding that the best option is
'Always On' and to have everything else set to Never, Never, Never. Is that
correct?

2) How often should I run CheckDisk? I seem to remember being advised with
my old Windows 98 computer to run the basic ScanDisk once a week, and the
thorough ScanDisk once a month.

3) How often should I run Disk Defragmenter?
 
HistoryFan said:
1) Power scheme. It's always been my understanding that the best option is
'Always On' and to have everything else set to Never, Never, Never. Is that
correct?
Click to expand...

Yes.
No.
Depends. If you work at home and use your computer frequently it is
better to have it run all the day and turn it off at night only. If
you know that you will be away for a longer time you can safely turn
the machine off or use standby/hibernation to save power.
2) How often should I run CheckDisk? I seem to remember being advised with
my old Windows 98 computer to run the basic ScanDisk once a week, and the
thorough ScanDisk once a month.
Click to expand...

This is not necessary. After an incomplete shutdown Windows will run
the Disk Checker automatically. You only have to run it manually if
you think that something does not work well on your system and that
data corruption could be a cause for this.
3) How often should I run Disk Defragmenter?
Click to expand...

Depends as well. If you run the tool manually you will get information
if it is necessary to defragment the drive before the process starts.
You can do that for some time to find out how often defragmenting
really is necessary and then setup a scheduled task for DEFRAG to
automate the process.
Defragmenting too often will not cause any problems and will not
damage the drive, BTW.
 
-----Original Message-----
Hello. I'm a new Windows XP Home Edition user. Three quick questions, if I
may:

1) Power scheme. It's always been my understanding that the best option is
'Always On' and to have everything else set to Never, Never, Never. Is that
correct?

2) How often should I run CheckDisk? I seem to remember being advised with
my old Windows 98 computer to run the basic ScanDisk once a week, and the
thorough ScanDisk once a month.

3) How often should I run Disk Defragmenter?


.
First question is NO!!!
Click to expand...
Why...,there are too many for me to mention to you.

Second question...,Xp automatically does a "CHECKDISK"
for you whenever you start your os.You can do a checkdisk
whenever you want but,it only needs to be done when you
feel a file on the disk has been contaminated also your
os will tell you,it's an XP feature.
But you should do a DISK CLEANUP everytime before you
shut down your os and when you start and you should clean
your cookies as well this will keep your XP working
better and faster!!!

Third question...,your os will tell you when you need to
defrag your files when you click on Disk Defragmenter
but...,even if your defragmenter says you don't have to
defrag you can still defrag.
The more you defrag the more your files stay in order and
the faster your os works since it does not have to search
all over to get information for a file.
It will put the info each litte cache folder instead of
having three cache folders for one program.
Hope this helps you and have fun with your new Home
Edition!!!!
 
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