Scott and Associates IT Services

Computer Tune-Ups
last updated Sunday August 19 2007

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In 1998 my sister and I bought our first PC together and I first began to realize some things about computers (I had years of experience before this but the last one I had was ten years earlier). One of them was that the longer you have a computer the slower it runs.

Eventually I learnt about defragging, so I tried it and yes it definitely had an impact. But the longer I was around computers and the more I defragged them, I realized that they still got slower even if I tried to defrag them everyday. Plus the computer would usually say something like "You do not need to defrag this volume" and it was right. At that point it didn't help at all.

I did research on my own reading and checking out different programs and I learnt a couple things that definitely helped a lot all of which are included in the list of things I do in a tune-up to help the computer startup, shutdown and run like it's supposed to.

I also went looking for all the free antivirus programs I could find and the online scanners that could erase viruses without me having to install anything normally.

In addition to slowing down I realized that computers can crash for no reason at all. I wondered why? When it happened to me the first time it complained that some file was missing or corrupt. Since I was the only person that used the computer I knew that I didn't touch the file in question so why was it missing or how did it get corrupted? I did more reading and finally found the reasons why and what I could do to reduce my risk even though the life expectancy of a hard drive is set at around 5 years. At least I wouldn't keep losing information before then.

When something bad happened that brought a computer close to the edge all the other IT people I knew would say "just give up, you have to redo the machine" which I absolutely hated. I hate having to look for all the CDs that I used to install programs on the computer. I hate sitting down waiting for windows to load up. I hate having to go online to find and download drivers for my machine. I absolutely hate that I forgot to back up all those files and now they were gone.

So I found solutions that help to bring back computers from the edge if they're close so I don't have to worry about all those things.

Over the years I've collected a list of things that I do to my own computer every so often to:

Ensure that it is less likely to suddenly crash and lose everything
Ensure that it runs as fast as it possibly can and starts up and shuts down as quickly.
Bring it back to proper working order if it's close to the edge but not over it with respect to a failure or viruses.

And that's what my tune-ups are about, things that I found out for myself to reduce my worries with my own computer. That's what I'm offering to you now .

I looked at the new Windows Vista, expecting that it would put me out of business because Microsoft would have addressed all these issues but they only address one, defragging and not very well at that. While they now allow you to schedule your defragmentations they put in a less powerful tool that in XP.

So when you notice your computer is starting to run slowly, or strange things are happening that may be virus related or you're worried about whether you will lose all your information tomorrow you should defintely give us a call.

Luckily I take my own advice, even my hard drive finally crashed after more than five years of hard work but since I could tell the symptoms I backed-up everything I needed.

Call today 868-772-8995.