Gateway 6400 - Manual (Page 84)

Maintaining and managing your hard drive 75
Maintaining and managing your
hard drive
Regular maintenance can keep your hard drive operating efficiently and good
file management can keep your system free of unwanted files while making
important files secure and easier to find.
Hard drive maintenance utility
If you are using the Windows NT operating system, you can help maintain
the performance of your hard drive by regularly using Check Disk. If you are
using another operating system, refer to your operating system
documentation for available hard drive maintenance utilities.
Using Check Disk in Windows NT
Bad sectors are parts of a hard drive or diskette that will not hold data. A lost
allocation unit is a group of sectors that has lost its place in the table that
the operating system uses to locate files. Check Disk checks the hard drive
for bad sectors or lost allocation units and lets you fix them.
Use Check Disk from once a week to once a month, depending on how often
you use your system. Also use Check Disk if you have any hard drive problems.
To use Check Disk:
1 Double-click the My Computer icon. The My Computer window opens.
2 Right-click the drive you want to check.
3 Select Properties . The drive’s properties window opens.
4 Click the Tools tab.
5 At Error-checking, click Check Now . The Check Disk window opens.
6 Scan the entire hard drive by selecting Scan for and attempt recovery of bad
sectors .
7 Click Start. Check Disk checks the drive for errors.
8 Follow any on-screen instructions for completing the scan.
05032.book Page 75 Monday, July 10, 2000 11:43 AM