26 replies to this topic

[mpossoff]

Hi,

Have been using CC for a bit.

Is there a set of weekly maintenance things in addition to CC that one should be doing to keep their PC clean and running the way it should.

Regards,

Marc

[Greenknight]

I would say:

Run anti-virus and -spyware scans (update the programs first).

Defragment your hard drive, on WinNT, 2K and XP, also run PageDefrag: http://www.sysintern...PageDefrag.html

Run another registry cleaner, in addition to CCleaner, since no one reg. cleaner gets everything. Make sure you use one that's safe, and has a backup feature, and make backups of entries you delete! I use EasyCleaner myself, others might want to recommend something else: http://personal.inet.fi/business/toniarts/...ne.htm#download

[hazelnut]

I would go along with greenknight on what he suggests.

A lot of people don't ever seem to do a defragmentation, but it is really important and keeps your computer in good order.

You sound as if you have common sense and would recognise the importance of keeping your virus and anti-malware programs updated and scaned on a regular basis.

I now keep a couple of little onetime use only virus checkers on my little usb pen drive ( which I keep updated ) in case of severe panic time!

I also think reading forums gives you a lot of help as you learn from other people's experiences.

[Andavari]

I'd say before defragmentation you should really run a Check Disk, since to my knowledge Windows XP doesn't automatically scan the disk for errors before defragmentation.

If you already know this just ignore it:

Here's how to perform Check Disk:

1. Open My Computer.
2. Right click each hard disk(s) or hard disk partitions one at a time
    and select 'Properties'
3. Next click 'Tools' and under 'Error checking' click 'Check Now...'
4. In 'Check disk options' select 'Automatically fix file system errors'
5. Click Start

Repeat steps 4 and 5 for each hard disk(s) or hard disk partitions.

Since Check Disk will ask for a restart to scan drive C:\ I'd recommend
you have it scanned for errors last, and do restart Windows soon after
scheduling it to scan for errors.

[Eldmannen]

You can run as often as you wish or not so often if you would like that. But I would recommend to run it atleast once a month, personally I run it more often than that.

[Andavari]

Eldmannen, on Dec 28 2005, 02:50 PM, said:

You can run as often as you wish or not so often if you would like that. But I would recommend to run it atleast once a month, personally I run it more often than that.

If you're talking about Check Disk I run it everyday before I make my daily backups. I run a surface scan about once every 1 to 3 months.

[Greenknight]

I don't run Check Disk that frequently, though maybe I should do it a little more often.

Does anybody here know much about the Check Disk function in HDCleaner? It's a lot more convenient to use, but does it work as well?

[Andavari]

Greenknight, on Dec 29 2005, 06:57 AM, said:

Does anybody here know much about the Check Disk function in HDCleaner? It's a lot more convenient to use, but does it work as well?

HDCleaner is just calling the commands from CHKDSK to my knowledge.
From a command prompt view the CHKDSK help file by typing in:
CHKDSK /?

HDCleaner description: Fix errors on disk

Check Disk command equals: CHKDSK /F
Check Disk description   : Fixes errors on the disk.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
HDCleaner description: FAT/FAT32: Displays the full path; NTFS Displays
                       additonal information

Check Disk command equals: CHKDSK /V
Check Disk description   : On NTFS: Displays cleanup messages if any, and removes
                           unused indexes.
                           On FAT/FAT32: Displays the full path and name of every
                           file on the disk.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

HDCleaner description: Locates bad sector and recovers readable information
                       (Implies 'Fix errors on the disk')

Check Disk command equals: CHKDSK /R
Check Disk description   : Locates bad sectors and recovers readable information
                           (implies /F). Please note, once Full Surface Scanning
                           starts it cannot be cancelled or stopped, and it can
                           take a long time to check a large disk. Only initiate
                           a Full Surface Scan if time permits and when you know
                           you won't be using your computer.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
* HDCleaner description: NTFS only. Skips the checking of cycles within the
                         folder structre

Check Disk command equals: CHKDSK /C
Check Disk description   : NTFS only: Skips checking of cycles within the folder
                           structure.
                           Not recommended because if there's errors they may not
                           be repaired.

[Greenknight]

Ran Check Disk today, thanks for the reminder. Now I remember why I don't do it that often, it takes quite a while. You do that daily? What do you have, a tiny HD?

[mpossoff]

Hi and thanks for all the advice.

I have been running Ad-Aware a couple of times since I've installed it.

It has detected critical objects and then I remove them.

I share this PC with my brother.

Now it's great that ad-aware is detecting and removing(I hope)...

BUT how can one avoid getting these critical objects in the first place?

I'm sure although ad-ware removes them it is still harmful for your pc?

or is it safe to say that let ad-aware remove critical objects and keep going as "business as usual"?

what causes these critical objects?

Marc

[mpossoff]

just ran ad-aware it detected 2 critical objects and mlu's?

removed them then ran it again.

after running it again no critical objects...so ad-aware is removing them.

my concern is what's causing these critical objects?

Marc

[hazelnut]

Perhaps you could try running ad-aware in safe mode. Sometimes things hide in the restore area and then restore themseves when you re-boot
You have to turn off system restore before you run in safe mode, and then switch it back on when you have fininshed scanning.
If you are unsure about how to run in safe mode, or turning off and on system restore, a quick visit to Google will help you out.

If you still have problems you could post a hijack this log in the hijack this part of this forum where someone qualified will check things for you.

[mpossoff]

thanks hazelnut,

ran ad-aware again and no detections.

I think the detections may have to do with my brother surfing the web.

I looked in my history lists and saw some porn sites.

I have never looked in a porn site, but suspicious my brother is.

we share this pc, will him looking at porn sites harm our pc?

Marc

hazelnut, on Dec 30 2005, 08:50 AM, said:

Perhaps you could try running ad-aware in safe mode. Sometimes things hide in the restore area and then restore themseves when you re-boot
You have to turn off system restore before you run in safe mode, and then switch it back on when you have fininshed scanning.
If you are unsure about how to run in safe mode, or turning off and on system restore,  a quick visit to Google will help you out.

If you still have problems you could post a hijack this log in the hijack this part of this forum where someone qualified will check things for you.

[hazelnut]

Porn sites are a real no go area if you don't want to pick up a nasty pc infection.

Perhaps, if you like, you could ask for someone to look at your hijack this log.

Instructions on how to do this (in case you don't know ) are here
http://forum.ccleane...?showtopic=1720

but first follow the instuctions given here.
http://forum.ccleane...?showtopic=3505

[mpossoff]

following the direction.

downloaded edwido but it keeps closing.

Marc

hazelnut, on Dec 30 2005, 09:26 AM, said:

Porn sites are a real no go area if you don't want to pick up a nasty pc infection.

Perhaps, if you like, you could ask for someone to look at your hijack this log.

Instructions on how to do this (in case you don't know ) are here
http://forum.ccleane...?showtopic=1720

but first follow the instuctions given here.
http://forum.ccleane...?showtopic=3505

[lokoike]

hazelnut, on Dec 30 2005, 09:26 AM, said:

Porn sites are a real no go area if you don't want to pick up a nasty pc infection.

Crack, keygen, and serial sites are usually pretty rough too. If you have a malware problem on your computer, you'll want to avoid these as well.

[Andavari]

Greenknight, on Dec 30 2005, 04:53 AM, said:

Ran Check Disk today, thanks for the reminder. Now I remember why I don't do it that often, it takes quite a while. You do that daily? What do you have, a tiny HD?

Yes I do it daily, and I always use the /V option to remove unused indexes. On my system it only takes about 30-45 seconds to check my secondary D:\ drive and about 60 seconds to check my C:\ drive.

On some systems it is painfully slow, "which may have to do with the processor I suppose" but I'm not sure. On a Celeron 1.3Ghz system I recently removed a ton of adware, spyware, trojans, viruses, and worms from it and CHKDSK took about 5 minutes to finish even after all the malware to my knowledge was removed.

[lokoike]

Andavari, on Dec 30 2005, 01:52 PM, said:

Yes I do it daily, and I always use the /V option to remove unused indexes. On my system it only takes about 30-45 seconds to check my secondary D:\ drive and about 60 seconds to check my C:\ drive.

On some systems it is painfully slow, "which may have to do with the processor I suppose" but I'm not sure.

It must have run so fast because you only checked the "Automatically fix file system errors", and did not check "Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors". It is kind of like the difference between doing a Standard and a Thorough scan for Win98 with Scandisk; the Standard takes seconds, while the Thorough can take over an hour.

Every time I run it on my computer, I check both boxes, so it usually takes about 20 minutes or so, sometimes longer.

And as far as speed goes, I would imagine that the specs of your HD would be the most influential factor in how long the scan takes. Rotations per minute, cache size, and disk density would make a big difference in scanning time. Obviously, my notebook with a 4200 rpm HD and 2 MB of cache is going to scan far slower than a desktop with a 7200 rpm HD with 16 MB of cache.

[Andavari]

lokoike, on Dec 30 2005, 02:01 PM, said:

It must have run so fast because you only checked the "Automatically fix file system errors", and did not check "Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors".  It is kind of like the difference between doing a Standard and a Thorough scan for Win98 with Scandisk; the Standard takes seconds, while the Thorough can take over an hour.

I only run the "Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors" about once every 1 to 3 months, it takes about 45 minutes each on each of my two hard disks.

Edit:
And I only use it in a Command Prompt because I always use the /V option to clean unused indexes. The command I use on my D:\ drive is
CHKDSK.EXE /X /V /F D:

I use /X to dismount the drive in case there's any open handles, /X will automatically close open handles therefore I don't have to reboot, or click Enter to manually do it.

[1984]

Andavari, on Dec 28 2005, 04:39 PM, said:

I'd say before defragmentation you should really run a Check Disk, since to my knowledge Windows XP doesn't automatically scan the disk for errors before defragmentation.

If you already know this just ignore it:

Here's how to perform Check Disk:

1. Open My Computer.
2. Right click each hard disk(s) or hard disk partitions one at a time
    and select 'Properties'
3. Next click 'Tools' and under 'Error checking' click 'Check Now...'
4. In 'Check disk options' select 'Automatically fix file system errors'
5. Click Start

Repeat steps 4 and 5 for each hard disk(s) or hard disk partitions.

Since Check Disk will ask for a restart to scan drive C:\ I'd recommend
you have it scanned for errors last, and do restart Windows soon after
scheduling it to scan for errors.

This is something I did not know about. Thank you sir.