Posts Tagged ‘Steps’

Donating or Giving Away a Computer? Follow These 5 Steps First

Is your laptop or desktop computer running slowly and not handling tasks or games well enough for your current needs? Do the latest and greatest applications slow your system to a crawl? If so, it may be time to purchase a new computer – but what can you do with your old machine besides dumping it into the trash?
* Many charities and schools can put older computers to good use as teaching aids or to provide to the less-fortunate.
* A friend or family member might be able to use your older computer.
* Is the computer many years old and no longer generally useful? After removing any usable parts, you may wish to recycle the computer, which is better for the environment than sending it to the dump.
Unfortunately, donating or giving away an old computer should not be treated like giving away a simple kitchen appliance, television, DVD player, or other piece of equipment. Computers have important files you should back up as well as information you would not want the general public to see. Thus, before you give away or donate an older machine, be sure to follow these five steps first:
1) Backup and Remove All Important Information
Backup and remove all needed data from your computer including documents, spreadsheets, music, photos, and videos. Archive electronic mail stored on the machine. Do you have any important bookmarks to websites? Export or copy them for later use. Have you stored any passwords on the machine such as website accounts? Back them up and remove them as well.
2) Leave Nothing Attached or Inside
Check your CD/DVD drive(s) to ensure you haven’t left music, a DVD, a system restore disk, an application setup disk, or other media inside your machine. Ensure no USB flash drives or other devices are attached.
3) Tax Deduction? Record Specs First
Depending on your local area’s tax rules and filing status, you may be able to deduct a portion of the fair market value of your computer if it is to be donated to an approved charity. If so, make sure you record your computer’s specifications so a fair market value can be determined. This includes, but is not limited to:
* CPU type and speed
* RAM
* Graphics card
* Sound card
* Hard drive(s) space and speed
This article is not providing tax advice, so be sure to contact your tax advisor, accountant, or attorney for local deduction rules.
4) Wipe the Hard Drive Clean
No matter how well you scour your hard drive for personal or business files, traces may remain on your machine. Plus, normal file deletion does not actually immediately remove files from the hard drive but hides them so the operating system does not see the files; space used by the deleted files is reclaimed as needed. Therefore, to help prevent others from reading your files either by accident or with file-undeletion software, you should wipe your drive clean before donating it or giving it away.
* For businesses or medical professionals absolutely vital, as a business may be held responsible if private customer information is found and distributed to the wrong hands.
* If you are not using your laptop for business, it still could contain information you do not want others to see such as medical records, finances, tax information, etc.
Unfortunately, wiping a drive clean will remove the operating system such as Windows, so if you plan on donating the machine, be sure to include recovery disks as well (as long as they do not contain private information) so the recipient can reinstall the operating system. Without them, the recipient may have to purchase a new operating system in order to actually use the machine.
Formatting a hard drive alone will not do – a hard drive needs to be completely wiped, and multiple passes are recommended to help prevent file recovery. While the article author does not recommend any particular hard drive wiping software, several exist including “CMRR – Secure Erase”, “Darik’s Boot And Nuke”, and “DriveScrubber(r)”.
Make sure before you perform a drive wipe that all files and information have been previously backed up, as using these tools makes it very difficult, if not impossible, to recover your information!
5) Reinstallation
If you are donating the machine and have system recovery disks, you may wish to go ahead and reinstall the operating system. If you’re really nice, go ahead and install all patches for the o/s and important software.
There are many ways one may give away an old computer including recycling and donation to charity. However, you should not get rid of your machine without first performing a few basic housekeeping tips. Backup and remove all important information because once you give your computer away, you won’t have access to your data. Check for inserted media and devices. Record pertinent information if your goal is to get a tax deduction for your donation. Wipe the hard drive(s) clean so personal or business information does not escape into the wild. And if you plan on donating your machine, go ahead and reinstall the operating system from recovery disks. With these steps you can feel good donating your machine or helping the environment via recycling, and you can feel even better knowing that you have helped safeguard your or your business’s privacy.
Copyright 2009 Andrew Malek.

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Fix Corrupt Registry Files in Three Quick and Simple Steps

If your goal is to fix corrupt registry files and errors and you are not so sure about what process to use, this article will share the necessary steps.?

Registry problems can add up over time and create system instabilities leading to poor performance. It is vital to clean and repair the registry often to avoid such problems. Some of the symptoms include: slow running computer, computer freezes, crashing computer, system delays, problems adding or removing software programs, slow start up, and even the dreaded blue screen of death (blue screen with white text).?

If you have attempted to improve computer performance through the use of typical virus software and it did not fix the problem, the chances are good that you need to fix corrupt registry files. The following steps will assist you in this goal.?

Step One: Get It All on Paper?

The cure starts with awareness. Use the referenced symptoms above to start your list. Take time to jot down all of the problems that have surfaced with your computer. The list will bring attention to problem areas so that you can measure which problems were corrected by this process. Some of the others may require a spyware and adware remover.?

The goal is to get down as much detail as you can for each problem. Focus on what programs are open while it happens, when it happens (during start up or while on the net), with certain users, and what are the actual symptoms.?

You can use this list later for pre and post repair comparison.?

Step Two: Scan for Errors?

This step requires the user to choose software for a free registry scan. Though this may seem like a difficult task, there are several quality registry repair products that offer free scans and that have vital features that are needed in case errors are found.?

When choosing from the best registry cleaner products, there are a couple key qualities to search for in such products. Obviously, the first is a free deep scan feature. This is commonplace to the top registry software programs.?

Another feature that is a must have is an automatic file backup system. If you have to do the backup yourself, time waste is involved. You want to have the peace of mind knowing that the software will do this for you so you can have a way to revert back to a prior state if you do not like the changes.?

A few other features that are good to have include: ease of use of user window, customized file repair options, descriptions of all features and problems detected (including file names), and some optimization features included for defrag and Internet Explorer.?

Once you choose a top registry repair utility, choose the deepest scan option available (after downloading the free scan software). After a couple of minutes you will see a scan results page so that you can fix corrupt registry files that are detailed.?

Step Three: Fix the Computer?

You have already completed the most difficult parts of the process (believe it or not). The final step is to simply invest in the full version of the software that has the repair function. This can be done with the same software used for the free scan. Simply follow the prompts offered and choose the number of computers you would like to license. The license will be for a year of unlimited use (in quality products). It is good to have a registry maintenance plan anyway, so a one year license works well.?

The repair itself is rather uneventful. It takes about 30 seconds maximum and is the fastest part of the entire process. After you fix corrupt registry files, restart your computer so you can see the results and compare against your initial list of problems.

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