With time and use, your computer's contents can become a
bit disorganized. As the information stored in the computer gets used,
moved, copied, added to, or deleted, the computer's hard disk, or
drive, can become cluttered with useless or inefficiently organized
files. Windows 7 provides a group of maintenance tools whose occasional use can make your computer run more smoothly, more efficiently, and (usually) faster. The table below describes what each of these tools does.
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Click the Start button, choose Computer from the Start menu, click
the drive that needs attention, and click Properties on the toolbar to
display the drive's Properties dialog box.
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Click the appropriate button to use the tool you need, and follow the instructions provided by the program:
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On the General tab, click Disk Cleanup.
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On the Tools tab, under Error-Checking, click Check Now.
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On the Tools tab, under Defragmentation, click Defragment Now.
Tip
By default, the Defragmentation program is set to run
automatically every week. If it doesn't run, or if you want to change
the schedule, click Modify Schedule in the Disk Defragmenter dialog box.
