718
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Chapter 20: Handling Routine Maintenance and Troubleshooting
When Disk Cleanup finishes, I recommend that you restart your computer and con-
sider the two additional options it provides:
Program Clean Up
Helps you free up space by removing programs that you do not use
System Restore and Shadow Copy Clean Up
Helps you free up space by removing all but the most recent restore point and
shadow copy
I recommend backing up and restarting your computer before using these cleanup
options to ensure that your computer is in a bootable state, that no updates need to
be applied, and that no current errors need to be resolved. You can use Disk Cleanup
to help you clean up programs, as well as system restore and shadow copies, by com-
pleting these steps:
1. Click Start, type
cleanmgr in the Search box, and then press Enter.
2. In the Disk Cleanup Options dialog box, select “Files from all users on this
computer.”
3. Select a disk to clean up and then click OK.
4. In the Disk Cleanup dialog box, select the More Options tab, as shown in
Figure 20-19.
5. To remove all system restore and shadow copies except for the current restore
point, click “Clean up” under System Restore and Shadow Copies. When
prompted to confirm that you want to delete this data, click Delete.
6. To find programs to clean up, click “Clean up” under Programs and Features.
On the Programs and Features page in the Control Panel, select a program that
you want to remove and then click Uninstall.
Checking Your Disks for Errors
Your primary disk is one of the most-used pieces of hardware on your computer.
Your computer is constantly reading and writing data. If it experiences the slightest
hiccup, the wrong data can be written to parts of the disk. If a particular sector or
cluster on a disk is damaged or otherwise cannot be written to, your computer will
experience problems whenever it tries to read or write data to this sector or cluster.
While Windows Vista and hardware controllers on the disk drives themselves both
do a good job of correcting problems, neither one can correct all disk problems. To
keep your computer’s disks running optimally, you need to check your computer’s
disks periodically for errors and correct any errors found.
You can check disk drives for errors and correct any errors found by following these
steps:
General Maintenance Tools
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719
1. Click Start and then click Computer. Under Hard Disk Drives, right-click the
drive you want to check and then select Properties.
2. On the Tools tab, click Check Now. This displays the Check Disk dialog box,
shown in Figure 20-20.
Figure 20-19. Cleaning up programs and other files as necessary
Figure 20-20. Checking your disk for errors

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