Basic minimum computer maintenance.

[tec0]

Well basic computer maintenance start with Basic backup first. After installing your computer back the installation up. You can do this via 8Gb DVD or BR-DVD both will work okay. Second step is backup your data as soon as it comes in. You can do this via a portable memory stick or portable HDD.

Keep it clean! Yes your registry is important so back it up! You can do this with the registry tool itself just export your registry. Do this before and after you install a new program. “Important� Then there is Disk defrag tool. Run it once a month and your computer will remain fast. Do a virus scan once a day with an updated antivirus. If you do this your computer will be fine and you will be able restore it easily when it does crash.

[Dave A]

Quite a good blog entry on tuning up your XP computer here.

[Chrisjan B]

I will also recommend that the PC case be opened up and checked for dust inside, lot's of intermittent problems can be because of dust on the moterboard and memory chips. The CPU fan also blows a lot of dust onto the CPU heatsink and it does get clogged up and the air cannot get through to adequately cool the CPU. I have solved many a problem by just cleaning the case inside. It may also be a good idea to run checkdisk monthly from the command line (monthly) because tere may be an error on your hard drive or it may be failing and it will give you an indication of bad sectors appearing. The command is chkdsk c: /f /r - just remember your PC needs to be rebooted and with the /r switch it will take a LONG time (hour or more)

BACKUP i agree is THE MOST IMPORTANT thing to do (always assume that your hard drive may fail any moment) - to external hard drive or a NAS sever that runs on the network - checkout FREENAS at www.freenas.org - it is BSD based, opensource and free, you can use an old PC with 256MB or more memory to run it on and when setup it is headless meaning you only plug in your network cable and the power as it is administered via a web interface.

[AndyD]

I just blow the dust out every six months, check the fans. I reinstall my Windows machines once a year but I've got Linux machines that have been standing for over five years without problems. I wouldn't touch a registry cleaner, if you get one that's badly behaved then it's usually bye bye to the Windows installation.

I sometimes check the SMART diagnostics for my critical hard drives. In XP right click the my computer icon and select 'manage' - event viewer - system and check the log window for SMART errors. SMART can predict iminent hdd failure by analizing read write access times etc.