Computer Performance and Maintenance, Tutorials Options

[Jghelfi]

This Thread is designed for posting tutorials designed for Computer Maintenance and Performance, so in order to post in this thread, you can ONLY post your own tutorial that will help the user guide their way through their computer.
*You may post tutorials regarding the following..
-Overclocking
-Restoration of files
-Battery Conservation
-Troubleshooting
-Constructing^NEW!

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Table of Contents^Updated!
- Recovering your documents after you do a System Restore
- Speeding up your Computer [1 | 2]
- Phenom II X3 - Turn it into a quad core
- Make menu's open instantly
- Automate HDD Defragmentation on Idle
- Build a Computer
- How to Create/Do a System Restore^NEW!
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Please post your tutorial in this style that i am displaying:

CODE

"[i]Title of tutorial here[/i]"
[b]Operating System:[/b] "Name of OS"
[b]DIfficulty:[/b] "Dif. here"
[b]Time needed:[/b] "Length of tutorial (Approx. are acceptable)"

Screen Shot (optional)

"Instructions to your tutorial..
(add Screenshots to your tutorial for easier reference)"

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"Recovering your documents after you do a System Restore"
Operating System: Windows XP
Difficulty: Intermediate
Time needed: 25 min. or less


So, you did a System Restore and only found some files that the computer had restored itself, and now you are saying: "Where did all my Documents (Music, Videos and Photos) Go!?." Now you are thinking that they have been wiped off your computer permanently right? Well thats a no. They are still on your computer! The Way you can recover your missing documents is by following this tutorial that will be easy if you follow the instructions correctly.

Step 1) Go to your Start menu
Step 2) Next go to My Computer.
Step 3) Go under the Hard Disk Drives section and double click PC_PAVILLION (C:).
Step 4) Now go into Documents and Settings.
Step 5) Choose the name of your computer that you had before. My computer's name was "HP_Owner.YOUR-86339EB2BF"
Step 6) Go to "HP Owner's Documents".
Step 7) And now you can see all the documents that you had before the restore.

Just Copy, Cut, or Drag the Folder or Documents that you have in there to the destined place. I hope this helps you later on when you have problems with your computer.

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If you have any problems regarding this tutorial, please PM me.

This post has been edited by -Jon-: May 1 2010, 03:18 PM

[Jghelfi]

"Speeding up your Computer"
Operating System: "Windows XP and Higher"
DIfficulty: "Easy"
Time needed: "30 minutes or more (depending on size of files)"

There are 4 ways on helping your PC work faster, but not harder. These 4 different ways will help you out when you need your PC at important times in life.

1. Free Up Your Disk Space
This first way is to help keep memory in your Hard Drive, so in order for this way to work, you will have to run a Disk Cleanup. When you delete the temporary internet files, it frees up space. When you keep the temporary internet files, it just takes up memory..

Run the Disk Cleanup to..
-Remove temporary Internet files.
-Remove downloaded program files (such as Microsoft ActiveX controls and Java applets).
-Empty the Recycle Bin.
-Remove Windows temporary files.
-Remove optional Windows components that you don't use.
-Remove installed programs that you no longer use.

-Go to Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, and click on Disk Cleanup.
-In the Disk Cleanup dialog box, scroll through the content of the Files to delete list. Uncheck the boxes of the files you do not want to delete.
-Then Click OK.
-Another dialog box will show, and it will ask you if you want to delete the files (confirmation), then click OK.



This process will take a couple of minutes depending on how much data is in the selcted files, so you might as well go make some food or watch tv while it is running the process.

2. Speed up the Access to Data
For this way to work you will have to use the Disk Defragmenter

Important times to run Disk Defragmeter.
-When you add a big number of filesto your computer.
-"Free Disk Space" dies down to 15% or lower.
-Install a new version of Windows.

-Go to Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Disk Defragmenter.
-Choose the Drive that you want to defragment, and then press Analyze.
(It is better to click on Analyze first so that way you know how long the defragmentation will take.)
-Now click Defragment.
(In Vista, you will not have the visual interface like in XP, but it will still be Defragmented.)

-After it is done, it will show you the results. To see a detailed report click on View Report.

3. Check for Disk Errors
As of Disk Defragmeter and Disk Cleanup are helping your Computer run smoothly, you can also use the Error Checking utility that is located in the 'My Computer' Properties. This utility helps find errors in your Hard Disk and it will scan and fix system errors.

If you use the Computer daily, then it is recommended that you should run the Error Checking utility once a week to prevent data loss.

-Close all open files first.
-Click Start, and open up My Computer.
-In the My computer window, right click on the Hard Drive you want to check for system errors on and click Properties.
-Go to the Tools tab on the Properties window.
-Click the Check Now button.
-In the Check Disk dialog box, select Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors, and then click Start.
-If bad sectors are found, choose to fix them.



Note:*Only select the "Automatically fix file system errors" check box if you think that your disk contains bad sectors.

4. Learn about ReadyBoost (Vista Users)
You can use ReadyBoost to speed up your system. A new concept in adding memory to a system, it allows you to use non-volatile flash memory—like a USB flash drive or a memory card—to improve performance without having to add additional memory.


I hope these tips help you out on your Computer Performance!
[MS]
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If you have any problems regarding this tutorial, please PM me.