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Getting your computer ready for cleaning and optimizing.

Before you start with any cleaning or tweaking procedures on your computer, you must take the necessary steps to safeguard the information stored on your PC. Don't take this warning lightly! It is imperative that you make sure your data will be safe. Some of the procedures recommended in this book may cause existing but up to now hidden problems to surface, which may either prevent Windows from starting or even keep your computer from starting. The first step to be taken is to backup your data files, but even before that, you have to get your files in order. Make certain all your essential data files are stored in one easy-to-find location. Windows XP gives every user account its own personal profile, which consists of a set of subfolders in the Documents and Settings folder. Your profile holds your personal files, usually your photos, music and videos. Your Outlook Express e-mail messages, Internet Explorer Favorites and cookies, and information about your settings and preferences are also stored in the My Documents folder . Move all data files stored elsewhere into the My Documents folder to make backing up easier. Also have a look at MOVING MY DOCUMENTS FOLDER in the book. You could for instance move it to the "D" drive, where your other data files are stored. This is if you either have two hard dives or the one you have is partitioned. Backing up your files and setting up a backup schedule after you've done your first backup is quick and easy and will take as little as 10 minutes a week and you can let Windows do most of the work. Windows includes Backup, which does the backups easily enough, although you may need to install it if you are using XP Home edition. I don't know about ME and Vista. If you use Windows XP Professional, the Windows Backup utility (Ntbackup.exe) should be ready for use. If you use Windows XP Home Edition, you'll need to install the utility. Insert your Windows XP CD into the drive and, if necessary, double-click the CD icon in My Computer. On the Welcome to Microsoft Windows XP screen, click: Perform Additional Tasks. Click Browse this CD. In Windows Explorer, double-click the ValueAdd folder, then Msft, and then Ntbackup. Double-click Ntbackup.msi to install the Backup utility. To start Backup: Click Start, point to All Programs, point to Accessories, point to System Tools, and then click Backup to start the wizard. Decide What to Back Up Don't check the All information on this computer to back up every bit of data on your computer. Think twice before choosing this option. If you've installed lots of software, your backup could add up to many gigabytes. For most people, the My documents and settings option is a better choice. This selection preserves your data files (including e-mail messages and address books) and the personal settings stored in the Windows Registry. If several people use your computer—as might be the case on a shared family PC—select Everyone's documents and settings.
This option backs up personal files and preferences for every user with an account on the computer.
If you know that you have data files stored outside your profile, click Let me choose what to back up.
Select the My Documents check box to back up all the files in your personal profile, and then browse My Computer to select the additional files you need to back up. If some of your files are on a shared network drive, open the My Network Places folder and select those folders. his option also comes in handy if you have some files you don't need to back up.
Decide Where to Store Your Backup Files
On the Backup Type, Destination, and Name page, Windows asks you to specify a backup location. Your computer's hard disk. The easiest but not ideal backup location is a separate partition from the one you're backing up. If your hard disk is partitioned into drive C and drive D and your data is on drive C, you can safely back up to drive D. However, if this hard drive runs into a problem you may have difficulty in restoring the backups. Unfortunately, the Windows Backup utility can't save files directly to a CD-RW or DVD-RW drive, a Flash memory stick or other removable media. This is an option if you don't have multiple gigabytes to back up.
A shared network drive. You're limited only by the amount of free space on the network shared drive.
An external hard disk drive. External hard drives have dropped in price lately. Consider getting an 80 GB or larger drive and dedicating it for use as a backup device.
After you've chosen a backup location, enter a descriptive name for the file, click Next to display the wizard's final page. You always have the option of copying important files to removable media. With CD-RW and DVD-RW drives, that's an attractive option.
In fact, just about any type of backup is better than doing nothing and hoping that your data will magically take care of itself. We make use of this system a lot because we can then delete older data files on the hard drive which take up a lot of space. It also comes in handy if you need a certain file again for, say, a reprint.
Setting up a Backup Schedule.
You can repeat the backup steps once each week and perform regular backups, but it may be better to set up an automatic backup schedule for Windows. When you get to the final page of the Backup Wizard, don't click Finish. Click the Advanced button, and click Next to open the When to Back Up page. Choose Later, and then click Set Schedule to open the Schedule Job dialog box. You can set almost any schedule you want by looking at the options available in this dialog box. After you click OK to save your changes, Windows runs the backup automatically. Don’t forget to leave your computer on.
You can back up 5 GB of data in about 10 minutes. And you don't need to worry about shutting down running programs, either, thanks to a feature called volume shadow copy, the Backup utility can safely create a copy of any file, even if it's currently in use. Now that you have done the backup of your files, you can start with the cleaning process. In my ebook, How to fix your Slow Computer, I show you exactly, with diagrams and pictures, what to clean, how to go about doing it, where you can download the utilities and how to set them up to run automatically.

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