C3 | Maintenance

Regular maintenance keeps your computer in optimum condition and extends its life.
It also increases the security and privacy of your personal information.

C3 uses and recommends the following free utilities for disaster recovery + regular upkeep.

But first, please allow me to share two gems of wisdom from my many years getting people out of a mess:

  1. Backup your data.
    Do it now!
    Do not trust your hard drive or other storage device to last forever; it will not. Additionally, any data that would ruin your life if lost should be copied and kept in a separate physical location. I cannot tell you how many people have suffered because they ignored this. And it makes your tender-hearted techies suffer on your behalf.

  2. Situation: your Windows 2000 / XP / Vista computer will no longer boot.
    Solution that often works miraculously, but almost no one knows about it:
    • Boot your computer from a Windows installation disk matching the version you have installed,
      i.e. use a Windows XP CD if you are running Windows XP on the computer; most consumer PCs come with a recovery/reinstall CD, and you should use that if you have it.
    • Once the initial loading of Windows Setup has finished, choose R to enter the Repair Console.
    • Log on to the Windows installation; usually this just means typing a '1' and hitting [Enter]. Provide the Administrator password if requested.
    • At the prompt, type 
       chkdsk /r /p
      and then hit [Enter]
    • The chkdsk process may take quite some time depending on the amount of data you have on the hard drive (or whatever you use to boot your computer), up to several hours. When it completes, just type 
       exit
      at the prompt and your computer will reboot.
    • I have seen a huge percentage of non-booting computers brought back to relatively useable condition using this technique.

  3. See #1 above.

Category

Operating System

Windows 98 / 2000 / XP

Mac OS X Jaguar / Panther / Tiger

General cleaning

CCleaner

applejack [geekier, can be used w/o desktop]
OnyX [friendlier]

Anti-Virus

Malwarebytes
AVG Free
Stinger

clamXav
[needed only if you receive and then re-send
large numbers of e-mail attachments from/to Windows users]

Anti-Spyware

Malwarebytes
Spyware Doctor Starter Edition
Windows Defender [XP SP2 / Vista]
Lavasoft AdAware

[OS X is effectively immune]

Firewall

ZoneLabs Zone Alarm

[use OS X built-in firewall]

Cloning & Backup

Acronis TrueImage
[free trial is fully functional, gets you from old hard drive to replacement]

Carbon Copy Cloner

[C3 | Carlson Computer Consulting uses and experiences great results with the above software; that said, regular rates apply if you get yourself into trouble -
this page is provided as an informational resource only, and C3 accepts no responsibility for what may or may not happen to your computer in using any of this software.]