how often should i run disk cleanup on xp

[pothead]

i like to keep my hd running as smooth and clean as possiable without having to reformat (extend the time off not having to reformat basically) how often should i run disk cleanup
?? Whats some other tips to keep my hd running smoothly.

Thanks,
Pothead

[ktkendall]

Do disk cleanup and defrag once a week or so. really depends on what you do with that PC though. The more installing and uninstalling of programs and downloading you do, the more frequent cleanups and defrags would be needed to keep HD quick and uncluttered.

[pothead]

ok stupid question bout what exactly is defraggin and how does it work. I do download ALOT and unisntall ALOT thats why i want to keep my hd running good so i dont have to reformat and try to back a bunch of **** up on like 100 cdrs ya know.

Thanks,

The Pothead

[Tuf]

No matter how much maintenance you do you should still back up anything that means something to you. Most people have to loose everything a time or two before they really believe this. With hard drives having gotten so cheap I just Ghost the entire partition to another drive. If something goes terribly wrong or I have a drive fail I can be back up and running in minutes.

[andyms18a]

defrag rearanges the file on your hdd so that all the bits are together when you save a file windows puts it in the first bit of free space if the fill is to big windows brakes it up defrag moves things around so the file bits ar next to each other

[not important]

I do mine once a week.
Tuf makes another good point. I lost all my info a few times. Now a do a lot of Ghosting!