Tài liệu PC Maintenance Guide : Simple Effective Tips for Tuning, Upgrade, & Repairing Your Windows PC pdf

22 Try Windows' built-in repair tools Use Linux to restore data and test your PC When you know you have a hardware problem... Use the tools on the Windows CD-ROM Bootcfg, Fixboot, Fixmb

PC Maintenance Guide

Simple Effective Tips for Tuning, Upgrade, & Repairing

Your Windows PC

Introduction:

As a weekly publication, Windows Secrets covers a broad swath of topics — especially all things Windows Some of that coverage is driven by the latest news in the world of PCs, such as the latest malware threats or the release of Windows 7 Other topics are generated by questions and suggestions — often sent in by readers like you

Over the years, Windows Secrets has accumulated at vast amount of information about Windows and Windows-related hardware and software You can find all of it in the

WindowsSecrets.com archives It can, however, take some time to find what you’re looking for, because our stories are organized by issue date, not subject category

That’s where a Windows Secrets special-edition e-book comes in; it’s a concise guide that presents our accumulated PC wisdom — such as it is — based on a theme

Grouping the information this way can save hours of digging through back issues In this format, the most essential articles and links are collected into one, easy to use reference For this e-book, the Windows Secrets editors pored through several years of published information and selected the best tips in three major categories:

1 Upgrading your system

2 Tuning up/speeding up your PC

3 Emergency troubleshooting

Each section starts with an anchor story covering the basics of a topic That’s followed by

10 or so additional items, each with abundant direct links to the Windows Secrets

archives (Paid-content links are shown with an asterisk.) Using these links, you can quickly find the topics and subtopics that most interest you

You’re welcome to read the entire e-book from front to back, but it’s most useful as a quick-reference guide that you keep at hand Each of the three major sections is a self-contained unit that lets you rapidly hone in on the information you need — when you need it

Because each section is self-contained, some topics appear more than once For

example, the defragmenting your hard drive tip appears both in the sections on

cleaning up your PC and improving boot times By putting it in two sections, you won’t have to remember which section it resides in, nor will you have to flip back and forth through the e-book to complete the overall task

We hope you find this thematic approach a useful complement to the normal flow of diverse information appearing every week in the Windows Secrets Newsletter We’d also like to give a special thanks to Fred Langa for providing most of the leg work needed to put this e-book together

Happy computing!

-The editors of the Windows Secrets Newsletter

Table of contents:

Part 1: Upgrading your system

The absolutely safest way to upgrade to Win7 1

What you need to start the transition to Win7 Back up your data and create the dual-boot system Move your data to the new Win7 partition

When ready, toss out the old Windows partition

An alternative: Install Windows from a USB drive 5 Buying a new system with Windows preinstalled? 5 Seven simple steps for optimizing your new Win7 setup 6

Get rid of the preinstalled junk software Free does not always mean useless Change Windows settings for safety

Show filename extensions Create a user account Consider turning off Automatic Updates Need it or not, set up a Windows homegroup Get automatic daily backups working

Install the basic helper applications Add useful but unobtrusive utilities

Other Upgrade Information 11

Solid-state hard drives Networking

Miscellaneous

Part 2: Tuning up/speeding up your PC

Start with a thorough system checkup 12

Check the hardware

Check your hard drive's physical health Check your hard drive's logical health

Correct driver errors now, while you can

Review and update your PC's security system 13

Patch and update Windows and apps Verify system security

Give your computer a thorough file cleaning 13

Take out the trash — all of it Rein in XP’s three worst space hogs Defrag

Use disk imaging to preserve your new setup 14 Build a rock-solid safety net with Win7 15

System repair disc Use the new “Create a system image” tool Fully automate your routine backups Restore a previous version

A step-by-step guide for improving boot times 16

Clean the Registry Shrink the Recycle Bin Trim the browser caches

Defrag, defrag, and defrag again Try a different anti-malware tool Also: speed shutdowns

Make Internet Explorer 8 faster, better 19

How to manually reset IE8 to as first installed condition How to automatically reset IE8 to as first installed condition

How to adjust Internet Explorer’s settings to your own preferences

Other tune-up/speed-up information 21

Networking, Registry, Hard Drive, Video, Laptop, and User Interface/Shortcuts

Part 3: Emergency troubleshooting

What to do when your PC gets hosed 22

Try Windows' built-in repair tools Use Linux to restore data and test your PC When you know you have a hardware problem

Use the tools on the Windows CD-ROM

Bootcfg, Fixboot, Fixmbr, and Diskpart Your last, desperate move: reinstalling

Rescuing Windows with a bootable flash drive Fixing your damaged Windows with bootable rescue CDs Fixing Windows disasters with custom boot CDs

Resources for solving other issues 25

Boot and startup problems Networking problems Sleep/suspend/hibernate Issues Viruses, malware, and so on Driver problems

More free troubleshooting/repair tools

Part 3: Emergency troubleshooting

We’ve all been there Maybe it’s a subtle glitch where something just doesn’t feel right with the system, or maybe the system won’t boot at all Problems come in all shapes and sizes, and Windows Secrets can help with them all

Let’s start with one of the worst problems that can befall a PC: the system hangs during the initial startup — or doesn't even try to boot

For this stop-you-in-your-tracks event, here's what to do and how to do it, as explained by Lincoln Spector’s “What to do when your PC gets hosed:”

What to do when your PC gets hosed

Try Windows' built-in repair tools

If Windows can't start in the usual way, you may be able to boot and repair it in a simpler mode

Turn on the computer, and put your finger on the F8 key The moment the first on-screen text disappears, just before Windows begins to load, press the key Pressed at the precise moment, the F8 key should bring up the Windows Boot Menu Depending on the

PC, it may take a few tries — with reboots — to get the timing right

That's assuming, of course, that your PC and Windows are both in good-enough

condition to get this far If they're not, skip this section and go on to the next one

If you get to the menu, select Last Known Good Configuration This option runs System Restore, which attempts to return Windows to a previous working condition

Should that effort not fix the problem, reboot, press F8 again, select Safe Mode, and try running System Restore from there

If you can load Safe Mode but System Restore doesn't do the trick, try running a good diagnostic and repair program (such as CCleaner) while still in Safe Mode (If you don't already have CCleaner installed, I recommend the portable version download.)

Still not fixed? Running in Safe Mode at least lets you back up your data — a task that's arguably more important than rebooting the PC in serious situations Plug an external drive into a USB port and drag important folders (such as your documents, photos, music, and videos) onto the external drive

Using Linux to restore data and test your PC

If you can't boot into Safe Mode, recovering your data files becomes an even more important job You may be able to access your hard drive and recover these files via a bootable (also known as live) Linux CD or flash drive

Booting Linux does more than help you recover your data: it helps you diagnose your trouble If you can successfully boot this way but can't access the hard drive after you're

in Linux, you know that the problem lies in your hard drive If you can't boot at all, you've got a hardware problem that doesn't involve the hard drive But if the whole process is a success, you've got a Windows difficulty, not a hardware one

There are a lot of live variations of Linux out there, but I recommend Puppy Linux

(info/download) It's not the most powerful one by a long shot, but it's small, fast, and easy for Windows users (See Figure 10.)

Figure 10 Puppy Linux gives you access to your hard-drive files when

Windows won't

Puppy downloads as an iso file, which is basically an image backup of a CD

Double-click it; there's a good chance any program that burns a bootable CD will load the file and let you burn it to disc If that doesn't happen, you need to download and install an app such as the free ISO Recorder

If you don't have an optical drive and therefore can't boot from a CD, see my July 8, 2010 Insider Tricks story, "Rescue Windows with a bootable flash drive," for instructions for putting your Puppy on a flash drive

After you prepare the CD or flash drive, insert it into your optical drive or USB port and try

to start your machine If it fails, make sure your PC is set to boot from this device When you first turn on your computer, you might see an onscreen message telling you to press

a particular key for a boot menu (which is not the same as the Windows Boot Menu I discussed earlier) Press that key to choose the right device

The boot menu message may or may not appear, but you'll almost certainly find

instructions to press a particular key for Setup In your PC's setup environment, which I can't describe in detail because it varies from one computer to another, you'll find options

to control the devices it boots from and in what order Look again for a boot menu You want your optical drive or USB ports at the top of that list

After you successfully boot into Linux, you can click the hard-drive icon (or one of the hard-drive icons) in the lower-left corner to bring up the drive's contents If the drive opens properly, find the files you need, plug in an external drive (you'll get a new icon, of

a flash drive), open that drive, and drag folders from one location to the other

When you know you have a hardware problem

So what do you do if you can't boot from a CD or flash drive? Unless you have an

extremely recent backup, your first priority is to recover your files

Open your computer and remove the drive (If you don't know how, check the manual.) After you remove it, you need to connect the drive to another computer — but not as the main, bootable drive If the other computer is a desktop machine, you can open it and plug the drive into a second SATA or IDE connector If that sounds intimidating, or if the

PC is a laptop, buy an adapter such as the Bytecc USB 2.0 to IDE/SATA Adapter Kit (info), which effectively turns an internal hard drive temporarily into an external one I've seen them on sale for as little as U.S $17

If you can't read the hard drive that way and there are files on it you really need, you have to take it to a professional data-recovery service Kroll Ontrack (info) and

DriveSavers (info) are the best known, but because I've never figured out a good,

practical way to test these services, I can't honestly say they're better than their cheaper competitors

Beyond hard-drive issues, what do you do if your PC won't boot from the hard drive, a

CD, or a flash drive? If you're comfortable enough with the inside of your PC to open it up and check connections and then test and swap components, go ahead Otherwise, take it

to a professional

Using the tools on the Windows CD-ROM

If Safe Mode didn't boot or didn't fix the problem, but you were able to boot into Linux and access the drive, it's time to try the tools on a standard, retail Windows CD or DVD But if you're using the version of Windows that came with your computer, you probably don't have an actual Windows disc That's okay You can make a bootable CD that can

do everything that an XP, Vista, or Windows 7 disc can do — except install an operating system

If Windows XP isn't booting, download the XP Recovery Console CD (download) Like Puppy Linux, it comes as an iso file

Create the CD and boot it At the main screen, press r for Repair to launch the Recovery

Console This brings up a DOS-like, command-prompt interface with several useful tools The best are these:

 Bootcfg: This is used for viewing and repairing the boot.ini file

 Fixboot: No, this isn't as wonderful as it sounds It simply rewrites a partition's

boot sector

 Fixmbr: This fixes the master boot record

 Diskpart: This one manages partitions, but be warned: it also destroys them

The tools on the Vista and Windows 7 discs are much friendlier than the XP versions But unless you have retail copies of the operating system, you must still make a disc

To make the Vista recovery disc, download the appropriate iso file, available on the NeoSmart Technologies site, and burn it to a CD You need BitTorrent installed to

properly download this file

Windows 7 comes with a tool for creating its recovery disc Click the Start orb, type

backup, and select Backup your computer In the resulting window's left pane, click Create a system repair disc You'll be prompted to insert a blank disc

When you boot from either the Vista or the Windows 7 disc, the boot process just might find your problem and offer to fix it before anything else happens If not, or if this doesn't work, follow the prompts to the System Recovery Options menu Everything is pretty obvious from there

Your last, desperate move: reinstalling

If your luck is good, you won't get to this point But if all else fails, you're left with

reinstalling Windows — which most of us know is a long, boring, and sometimes scary process Check out my how-to story, "Reinstall Windows without losing your data," for instructions

All the above can go a little more smoothly if you gather some recovery tools in advance

of actually needing them For example, see these:

 Rescue Windows with a bootable flash drive

 Bootable rescue CDs can fix your damaged Windows

 Custom boot CDs help fix Windows disasters

Resources for solving other issues

Boot and startup problems

 Removing a false dual-boot option in Windows 7 (includes tools for managing Win7 and Vista system bootup)

 Tracking down and preventing unwanted reboots

 Using Task Manager to troubleshoot startup woes

 Using Bootrec.exe for startup repair

Networking problems

 Solving Windows 7 networking problems

 More on Win7-NAS networking problems

 What — or who — is using your connection?

 Give your flagging WiFi signal a boost

Sleep/suspend/hibernate issues

 Insomniac PC simply wakes on its own, won't stay asleep

 Network connection won’t recover from sleep mode

 PC still seems active when 'standing by'

Viruses, malware, and so on

 How you can end a rootkit infection (as I had to)

 Microsoft Security Essentials (free)

 The 120-day Microsoft security suite test drive

 Security Essentials test drive — month 6

 Readers weigh in on MS Security Essentials

Driver problems

 Forcefully rooting out a bad hardware driver

More free troubleshooting/repair tools:

 Free utility suite bundles over 100 portable troubleshooting tools

 Windows’ Free Reliability Monitor

 Windows 7's built-in disk-imaging utility

 Beyond Chkdsk.exe

 Free 'Process Explorer' helps end shutdown woes

 Using Windows' System File Checker/ Windows File Protection (WFP)