Basics about files, and disk operations.
or this page isn't pretty, but worth reading anyway.
You may wish to check this page as well if you are really new to computers. How to make boot disks, etc. or try here to download them. One of the most common problem/question encountered by the new computer user is disk and file operations. In most cases this is just from lack of understanding of the way the computer does things, and also the way the instructions for how to move and manage files, or programs that deal with this area are explained in the instructions. It is my hope to help clear up a few points to some in this area. The first thing to understand is that your computer has what is known as a hard disk or drive. This is a device that is much like a stack of records (platters) that spin. These platters have magnetic surfaces, much like found on audio or video tape, however on a rigid disk. Generally there are 3 or more of these platters in a hard disk and are often recorded on both sides by a head that pass or floats over the surface. The lay out of how this is done is in what is called cylinders or tracks, and sectors. All data on your computer aside from some located in a chip known as a bios chip, which controls the start up of the computer is located on the hard drive, or CD in the CD ROM drive. The files are kept track of in a few different areas of the hard disk, in a file known as the File Allocation Table or FAT. The FAT is set up during the format process every hard drive goes threw as a part of the installation process. There are generally two copes of the FAT on the hard disk and it is also the area that many virus programs attempt to attack to render the disk paritally or totally useless. Since the FAT is how a hard disk knows where to find a given piece of data when called upon to do so, it is vital to keep it free of such things. Many disk drives that have bad or worn out FAT sectors on their media are useless. This is about all you need to really know about this part of the operation, as it is not required you know the actual electronic or programing processes as to how this is done. However, it is important you know at least this basic part to understand what can happen at times and how to avoid problems with this area of your computer. The Windows operating system, and MS-DOS before Windows both had some provisions to maintain the file structures on the hard disk. The first program is ScanDisk. This program checks to see if the files system structure is correct on the drive, and if needed can test, sector format areas, and if need be lock off a given area from further use if it is shown to have problems retraining data. With most of the newest drives the later is not used a lot ( surface scan / pattern testing ), however the file structure feature is started by Windows every time the Windows operating system is not allowed to exit operation by closing the files. Typically due to either a lock up of the computer or an unexpected power outage. The reason for this is that if the drive was in the process of writing to disk while the power down happens, it could leave a bad or lost string of data on the drive. So ScanDisk is usually started when Windows is powered up after an unexpected termination of Windows. It should however be done from time to time for standard maintance on the hard drive as well. Windows 95 / 98 ( and I assume later versions of Windows ) have a task manager that will do this, if you wish to have it done that way. It however should be the first operation done when starting a disk maintance cycle. Something that should be done anywhere from daily to monthly depending on the amount use you put on your computer. For most ever week or every other week seems to be about often enough to provide acceptable performance on their machine. To find ScanDisk on a Win98 system, go to the START button on the lower left of the screen, left click the mouse on it, and then move to Programs, then move to Accessories, then to System tools. You should see it listed there, move to it and click your mouse on that. It should open and ask what drive you wish to scan, and generally it is drive C, and the standard operation is generally all that is needed. Depending on how many files you have on your computer, the speed of your processor, memory available, speed of that hard disk, and how many problems the program finds, the operation usually takes from 1 minute to perhaps 10 minutes. If you see errors on a computer that has been used alot, it might be time to consider a surface scan of the drive with scan disk. This may take 10 hours or longer and should always be done with other programs closed and of course off line. The next operating system tool to use for file storage health is DiskCleanup. This can be found the same way the ScanDisk tool was found, and you likely seen it listed there if you have used Scandisk already. It should start and ask what options or files you wish to have cleaned/removed from your computer. These files are temporary files, offline webpage files, the recycle bin and so on. If you are sure you do not need anything from these areas it is safe to clean the files from your system and free up disk space. If however you feel you may need to have something back out of the recycle bin (a storage area where Windows places a file it marks as deleted in most cases,) then proceed to empty that as well. This process generally takes about 5 minutes again depending on when it was done last, the number of files that need to be removed, the processor and disk speed and so on. It is important to note that slow operation at times online can be a result of alot of seeking in the offline webpage areas. So it is often a good idea to notice if you are seeing slow results at times when online and notice the LED for the hard drive lighting up, it could be due to a large amount of files or full offline webpage storage area. For those who still wish more disk clean up there is a handy shareware program called WindowWasher that cleans most of the Microsoft Windows Disk Cleanup files plus also does a few others such as cookies and some files that the Windows version tends to overlook. I believe this program is downloadable in shareware or demo form from several locations if you are interested. The last area on most system tools that is provided in most cases is Disk Defragment. This program is found in the same area as the two already mentioned. It's function is to move files around into an order that allows the hard drive to not waste a great deal of time sorting around for them. You see file storage tends to get messy at times, often putting part of a file in one place and then when additions are made to the file it can find the other part stored on another track or sector of the drive. Of course program parts often end up getting seperated as well over time and with changes to contents of files. The disk defragment program takes the parts of the program/data files and moves them back into a somewhat more workable order. It should be mentioned at this point you should not run disk defragment unless you at least have run ScanDisk first. If you have an error in the file structure, running disk defragment may well just compound the error. So having now been warned, remember to run scandisk before you defragment your disk. As far as the process of Defragmenting the disk, it is best to have all programs closed. The reason for this is that if a program is running and using the disk also, Defragment will restart the process of defragmenting each time the disk contents are changed by a program writing to a file on the drive. Most often seen failures when someone attempts to operate Disk defragment are screen savers. If you see your system screen saver start and find your hard disk is not getting defragmented, you may have to turn off your screen saver while using the Disk Defragment program or select a very small screen saver or none on the control panel screen saver settings. You can do this by going to START, SETTINGS, CONTROL PANEL, DISPLAY, SCREEN SAVER, and selecting none or possibly something simple like flying threw space. Of course you can return there and then just reselect the screen saver you had before if you choose to after this task is done. If you still are seeing problems to get disk defragment to complete it's job, you may wish to check the programs located in the start up folder. (START, PROGRAMS, STARTUP) to see if one of them is running and writing to your computers hard drive. One last point to mention is that Disk Defragmenting generally does not work well once the drive contents exceed 80% full. In most cases, if you are using 80% of your hard drive for file storage it is time to look toward more drive storage or removal of some programs. The reason for this is that Windows uses a process called Virtual Memory, which really is little more than Windows writes a selected part of what it would otherwise hold in memory to a file on the hard drive. This file is often referred to as a swap file. If you fill your drive up excessively the size possible for this file is often adjusted downward and can result in slow or poor operations of the Windows Operating system. Virtual memory or a lack of it, can and often does become an overlooked problem that is behind many problems with Windows operation. In addition to the above mentioned maintance, there is an overlooked item that is helpful to most if use, that being a Windows Registry Cleaner. Windows keeps track of the files in what is known as a registry file. With installs, deletes, un-installs and other movements, at times the registry has errors, typically calls for files that no longer exist on the computer or are shown twice at two different spots on the hard disk. What happens in most cases with a few errors is slow operation while Windows looks where it last knew the files location and when it does not find it, after a few seconds comes back and keeps going. Needless to say the more of these attempts to find a file that is no longer where it is supposed to be according to the registry, the slower everything appears to operate. The Helps and Links Page on this site includes download sites for two registry cleaners. Carefully follow the instructions with both these programs as failing to do so could result in a major problem with Windows. It is also possible to manually edit the Windows Registry file, but I do not suggest doing so in most cases. Reguardless of what you do with the registry it is generally a good idea to keep a backup copy but it should be mentioned that Windows normally retains 4 back up copies of the registry ( the last 5 reboots or boot ups of Windows ) . Use of the Windows Explorer. I believe this is one of the most over looked parts of Windows for the new computer user. For those who do not know what Windows Explorer is, the MyComputer Icon is more or less the braindead version of it. To get to the fully functional version read on. Few seem to master Windows Explorer and most seem to avoid it altogether but in so doing they really are missing some of the best features of Windows. The Windows Explorer is accessed by Right Clicking on the START button on the desktop. Then selecting the Explore option there. It will show you every file on your computer, depending on the section of the view you have choosen. It will give you most of the information about the file, and allows for moving of files onto other drives or between folders, even several at a time. Find a file you know of in say MyDocuments, ideally a few image files you may have placed there. ( jpg or gif ) Now depending on your desktop settings, either hold the mouse pointer over the filename or click once on the file with the left mouse button. Then after the file name is highlighted, right click the mouse and select copy in the options shown there. Now move to a different folder ( ideally one that has little of importance in it, ) and click once or otherwise highlight the folder, ( it should show the folder as open at this point and highlighted ) then right click the mouse, and select paste. If you check towards the bottom of the list of any contents in that folder you should see the file listed there at this point. This is how you can copy files from one folder to another on your system. The fact is, you can delete them by selecting another option also listed under the right mouse button pretty much the same way. You can often move several files by holding the control key down on the keyboard as you highlight them and then when you select copy if should be making copies of all the files selected. If you look under the edit tab, at the top of the screen there is also a select all option there which would select all the contents of a given folder. If you wish to see more or alternate lay outs of the view of the files on your system you can do so by clicking on View, then one of the 4 options ( Large icons, small icons, list, details ) I prefer details myself but some prefer not to see hidden files. Files deleted can be restored from the Recycle Bin also provided you do so before you empty the recycle bin. I would not however suggest someone delete files wildly and hope that resortation from the recycle bin be used for testing this feature. It is there for a safeguard not as routine to be use all the time. To detail how this function works might be helpful. You see when a file is marked for deleted even in the days of MS-DOS only the first letter of the file name is removed from the system to save time until it is over written or otherwise marked for total removal. So use of defragment could possibly ruin a file that is marked for removal. Dumping the recycle bin often removes the files from the Windows Registry lists and gives the disk control operation a green light to use that address for other files. It may or may not be possible to recover files deleted from the recycle bin by use of some recovery methiods. So do not assume that any file removed from the recycle bin can or cannot be recovered if really needed. ( People have gone to jail not knowing this little piece of information and some companys make good money from recovering files. ) Whatever the case is, once the sectors are written over again it is often no longer possible to recover a file. So if you do manage to accidently delete files, it is often best to shut down Windows and get someone who knows how to recover files in DOS and let them know what the file names are. Using the computer for Windows operation may prevent recovery of a useful file due to the virtual memory use and other read write operations done all the time on Windows. Depending on what purpose you have in mind for your computer, backup of data files generally a good option that is often overlooked by many. The truth is with the size of fixed disks now, one really needs to consider CDRW or Tape backups as their best option if they are storing anything critical in the way of data on their computer. The 1.4mb diskette is a bit small in size even with compression of data to store much really in volume seen on the fixed disks in use today. Even at 75% compression (which is more than most back up compression will do) it means about 18 diskettes per 100mb of disk storage, or in the case of a 10gb drive, it means 1800 diskettes assuming the drive is full that is. Typical CD Rom storage is about 600mb, and tape back ups depend on the tape but most operate from 2gb to 6gb storage. Keeping this in mind it should be noted that to be making totally safe back ups, one should have 2 copies on hand of a back up, updating the oldest of the two each time a back up cycle is done. Of course one can cut down greatly on the amount of data needed in a back up, if you have restore CD that offers the option of format or non format restoration of the drive. It should be mentioned that it is also very possible on larger drives to copy a total back up of Windows into a partisioned area also which would allow a rather quick restore of the Windows part of any back up. However this is not fool proof needless to say if there is a physical drive failure. Even two drives used for this purpose would not recover from a surged system if they both were surged and no longer functional. Virus programs also can migrate threw several areas of a hard disks and of course then render such measures useless as well. Even with these things all kept in mind, the most commonly overlooked and preventable mistake is not having boot diskettes made to restart the computer with should there be a partial failure of Windows, and a copy of the Antivirus recovery files which in most cases contain boot record information and FAT data. If you have not made a Boot Diskette for DOS here is the basic process for Windows 98. START, SETTINGS, CONTROL PANEL, ADD/REMOVE PROGRAMS, STARTUP DISK TAB. You will of course need a formatted floppy diskette ideally with system files in place and without any errors after being formatted. Make sure you lable this diskette and keep it in a safe place. Next find out what your antivirus program requires for start up diskettes and format new floppy diskettes for that purpose and lable them as needed. Then allow the antivirus program to make recovery diskettes. Depending on the program this can require 1 to 4 or more diskettes. However you can have all these diskettes made and have some left over from a 10 pack of diskettes. Cost and time it takes, about $4.00 (us) for the diskettes, and about 30 minutes. If you do not do this, even a relatively minor virus infection could end up costing you hundreds of dollars to correct, and days in down time on your machine. I will also mention one of the most overlooked items to back up by many are the addressbooks on mailers, and the Favorites or bookmarks on the browsers. Most have provisions to make backups of both and save them into a format that is transferable from one browser to another such as HTML or TEXT format. These files also do not come close to filling one diskette so it is also worth a few minutes in time to back them up. The program for back ups of Internet Explorer Favorites is called FAVTOOL and is available from Microsoft as well as many other places you can find on search engines. |
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2-13-2002