After making your boot disk,recheck "Hide protected operating system files and folders (recommended)" in Folder Options dialog box. To use disk when Windows XP won't boot,place disk in drive,and unto re-booting,the computer, Windows simply bypass basic boot files on hard drive and continue to boot up.

If The PC Won't Boot Pass Windows

FIRST......If your Operating System is Windows Millennium,turn on computer and immediately press and hold down CTRL key.Once startup options appear,release CTRL key. Select Safe Mode and press Enter.You are now in Windows limited version.If you know what caused your computer not to boot,you can now either change or delete that program.

SECOND....Repair your Registry by selecting Start,Run and typing "scanregw /fix" and press enter.This will fix any damage done to Registry. You can also restore your registry which replaces your current registry with an earlier copy that was backed up by your computer.Click on Start,Run and type "scanregw /restore and press Enter.

To repair your Windows 98 Registry,hold down CTRL key as you start PC and select "Command Prompt Only".Type "scanreg /fix" and press Enter and "scanreg/restore" to restore a previousely saved copy of Registry.

If you have Windows XP,press F8 after rebooting PC should Windows freeze while booting up. You can select "Last Known Good Configuration" after rebooting to allow computer to boot last backed up files.And you can choose "Safe Mode" to remove any files you know caused operating system to hang up.

Be prepared when your operating fails to boot. It would be a great idea to go over this article a few times and print it.Make yourself s notebook and place this and all related articles there.

If your computer fails to boot or begins to become unstable,you can refer to these articles to make corrections that are needed.Learn these steps from your television set with PC Super Pack.

Be sure to note any changes you make to your Registry and if you're not sure,its best to find a friend that's pc savvy first.Above all,be certain you back up your registry before making any changes and know how to restore as well.

1- First reinstall Windows and then application programs you use. 2- Restore your backups into appropriate files. If you use a Zip drive or a CD-writer, these need to be installed first. 3- Reinstall all drivers for printer, modem or other peripherals.

Do defrag

A file on your disk may not be stored all in one place or cluster. For example, if you create a Word document and make changes to it at a later date, change may get saved in a different cluster from original file. The more often you make changes to a file, more disorganized cluster becomes, and disk becomes fragmented. This makes magnetic head that reads and writes data to and from disk, works harder to retrieve entire file. Fragmentation of hard drive reduces storage efficiency and then access time for retrieving information.

The process of defragging helps to rearrange files and unused space on your hard disk so that programs run faster.

Before Defragging, it may be a good idea to check how much of your hard drive is fragmented. You can do this by running ScanDisk. Empty temp folders and Recycle Bin before defragging.

Windows 95 and Windows 98-: Open Start Menu, choose Programs, choose Accessories, and choose System Tools and click on Disk Defragmenter. You defragging schedule will depend on how much you use PC. A good rule of thumb is to defrag every two weeks. Make sure all your files are closed and then you have turned of screensaver also.

Spring Cleaning No more hard disk space left? Getting disk error or illegal operations? It may be time to clean up your hard disk. A few spring cleaning pointers to help you out.

1- Toss out unwanted applications-: check out all software applications you have loaded on PC. Delete old applications if you have installed newer versions. Go to Control Panel’s Add/Remove program option and uninstall those applications you don’t need.

2- Run ScanDisk-: ScanDisk option in Windows is very useful application which fixes problem like lost clusters, invalid directory entries and physical disk errors. Run ScanDisk once a month.

Go to start, choose Programs, choose Accessories, and choose System Tools and click on ScanDisk. Click drive that contains folders and files you want to check.

3- Defrag often, once in two weeks.

4- Empty Recycle Bin-: Right-click on Recycle Bin icon on Desktop and choose Empty Recycle Bin from dropdown menu. 5- Clean out your folders-: do you really need all those download you had undertaken for a past research project or those games you seldom plays? Delete those folders that are not required.

6- Delete .tmp files and create more space on hard disk.

Close all programs. Go to Windows Explorer. Press key to open find dialog box. Enter *.tmp in box. Make sure that C: Drive is listed in Look-in box. Include subfolders by checking them. When .tmp files appear, delete them.

7- Delete temporary Net files to create more space.

Go to temp Internet Files folder in Windows Explorer. Delete all present files.

8- There are several Windows components on your hard disk that you could do without. You could remove these individual components from Add/Remove Windows setup option and create more space on your disk

Some windows components that are not necessary are accessories such as Desktop Wallpapers (a saving of 700kB) and games (a saving of 600kB

Before you format….. 1- Enter hard drive’s technical specifications (number of cylinders, tracks, sectors etc.) into PC’s BIOS setup table so that it is available for machine’s Startup program.

2- Backup all your important data onto another hard disk, recordable CDs, Zip Drive, magnetic tapes or floppies. If you have a sort of backup space or are in hurry, copy only important folders. Backup your e-mail and address books too. After taking backups, check them out to make sure that they are okay.

3- Backup any folders that you share with others over a network.

4- Keep handy installation disks or CDs of application software you use, such as Windows or an office suite. These will have to be re-installed after formatting.

5- Keep handy driver disks for your printer, sound card, CD ROM driver, modem or other devices. These will have to be re-installed after formatting.

FAT Facts

When a hard disk is formatted, a File Allocation Table (FAT) is created on disk. FAT keeps a record of locations of all files on disk FAT 16 is file allocation system used in DOS and Windows 95. FAT 32 file system is used in Windows 98 or Win 95 OSR 2. FAT 32 is considered to be more efficient as it saves more space on disk.

The performance of hard disk largely affects overall performance of a PC. Hard disk performance factors include storage capacity, data access time (the time it takes for read write heads to find a required position on magnetic surface), data transfer time (measure how many million bit per second can be transferred from disk to RAM) and reliability.

TIP Keep your hard disk in tip-top condition and optimize its performance. 1- Create separate folders for each business application, data or for each family member. This will keep your disk clean and organized.

2- Avoid compression Though file compression increases amount of storage space, it also considerably slowdown system performance. 3- Keep 10% free. Always keep at least 10% of your hard disk free-filling it beyond 90% of its capacity will lead to system slowdown and potential loss of information.

4- Run Maintenance Wizard utility of Windows 95 and 98. This utility make your programs run faster, checks your hard disk for problems and free hard disk space. You can schedule it to0 run on a regular basis at a specific time, for example once a week or other interval of your choice.

Start maintenance Wizard by clicking on Start, choose Programs, choose Accessories, choose system tools and click on Maintenance Wizard.

5- Use software package that help to optimize your hard disk’s performance, e.g. Symantec’s Norton Utilities.