Essay/Term paper: How to maintain a computer system

Essay, term paper, research paper:  Information Technology

How to Maintain A Computer System


Start a notebook that includes information on your system. This
notebook should be a single source of information about your entire system, both
hardware and software. Each time you make a change to your system, adding or
removing hardware or software, record the change. Always include the serial
numbers of all equipment, vendor support numbers, and print outs for key system
files.
Secondly periodically review disk directories and delete unneeded files.
Files have a way of building up and can quickly use up your disk space. If you
think you may need a file in the future, back it up to a disk. At a minimum,
you should have a system disk with your command.com, autoexec.bat, and
config.sys files. If your system crashes, these files will help you get it
going again. In addition, back up any files with an extension of .sys. For
Windows systems, all files with an extension of .ini and .grp should also be
backed up.
Next any time you work inside you computer turn off the power and
disconnect the equipment form the power source. Before you touch anything
inside the computer, touch and unpainted metal surface such as the power supply.
This will help to discharge any static electricity that could damage internal
components.
Now you should periodically, defragment your hard disk. Defragmenting
your hard disk reorganizes files so they are in contiguous clusters and makes
disk operations faster. Defragmentation programs have been known to damage
files so make sure your disk is backed up first.
A good thing to do now would be to protect your system from computer
viruses. Computer viruses are programs designed to infect computer systems by
copying themselves into other computer files. The virus program spreads when
the infected files are used by or copied to another system. Virus programs are
dangerous because they are often designed to damage the files in a system. You
can protect yourself from viruses by installing an anti-virus program.
Lastly learn to use system diagnostic programs, if they did not come
with your system, obtain a set. These programs help you identify and possibly
solve problems before you call for technical assistance. Some system
manufactures now include diagnostic programs with their systems and ask that you
run the programs before you call for help.