Gateway m505 User Manual
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13 201 Maintaining Your Gateway M505 This chapter provides basic information about maintaining your notebook hardware and software. Read this chapter to learn how to: ■Care for your notebook ■Protect your notebook from viruses ■Manage hard drive space ■Back up files ■Clean your notebook
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202 Chapter 13: Maintaining Your Gateway M505 www.gateway.com Caring for your notebook To extend the life of your system: ■Be careful not to bump or drop your notebook, and do not put any objects on top of it. The case, although strong, is not made to support extra weight. ■When transporting your notebook, we recommend that you put it in a carrying case. ■Keep diskettes and your notebook away from magnetic fields. Magnetic fields can erase data on both diskettes and hard drives. ■Never turn off your...
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203 Caring for your notebook www.gateway.com Maintenance schedule Use the following table to set up a regular maintenance schedule. Maintenance task Monthly When needed See... Check for viruses X Xpage 204 Manage hard drive space Xpage 207 Clean up hard drives X Xpage 208 Scan hard drive for errors X Xpage 209 Defragment hard drive X Xpage 211 Back up files X Xpage 213 Clean computer case Xpage 215 Clean keyboard Xpage 216 Clean notebook screen Xpage 216 Clean mouse Xpage 216
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204 Chapter 13: Maintaining Your Gateway M505 www.gateway.com Protecting your notebook from viruses A virus is a program that attaches itself to a file on a computer, then spreads from one computer to another. Viruses can damage data or cause your notebook to malfunction. Some viruses go undetected for a period of time because they are activated on a certain date. Protect your notebook from a virus by: ■Using the Norton® AntiVirus program to check files and programs that are on diskettes, attached...
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205 Protecting your notebook from viruses www.gateway.com To scan for viruses: 1Click Start, All Programs, Norton AntiVirus, then click Norton AntiVirus 2003. Norton AntiVirus opens. 2Click Scan for Viruses. 3Click the type of scan you want to make in the Scan for Viruses area, then under Actions, click Scan. Scan for viruses Scan
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206 Chapter 13: Maintaining Your Gateway M505 www.gateway.com To remove a virus: 1If Norton AntiVirus finds a virus, follow all on-screen instructions to remove the virus. 2Turn off your notebook and leave it off for at least 30 seconds. 3Turn on your notebook and rescan for the virus. To update Norton AntiVirus: 1Make sure that you are connected to the Internet. 2Click Start, All Programs, Norton AntiVirus, then click LiveUpdate - Norton AntiVirus . The LiveUpdate wizard opens. 3Follow the on-screen...
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207 Managing hard drive space www.gateway.com Managing hard drive space Windows provides several utilities you can use to manage your hard drive. Checking hard drive space To check hard drive space: 1Click Start, then click My Computer. The My Computer window opens. 2Right-click the drive that you want to check for available file space, then click Properties. Drive space information appears.
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208 Chapter 13: Maintaining Your Gateway M505 www.gateway.com Using Disk Cleanup Delete unnecessary files, such as temporary Windows files, to free hard drive space. To use the WindowsDisk Cleanup program: 1Click Start, then click My Computer. The My Computer window opens. 2Right-click the hard drive that you want to delete files from, for example Local Disk (C:), then click Properties. The Properties dialog box opens at the General tab. 3Click Disk Cleanup. The Disk Cleanup dialog box opens. 4Make...
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209 Managing hard drive space www.gateway.com Checking the hard drive for errors The Error-checking program examines the hard drive for physical flaws and file and folder problems. This program corrects file and folder problems and marks flawed areas on the hard drive so Windows does not use them. If you use your notebook several hours every day, you probably want to run Error-checking once a week. If you use your notebook less frequently, once a month may be adequate. Also use Error-checking if you...
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210 Chapter 13: Maintaining Your Gateway M505 www.gateway.com 3Click the Tools tab. 4Click Check Now. 5Click the options you want to use, then click Start. For help, press F1. Windows checks the drive for errors. This process may take several minutes. After Windows has finished checking the drive for errors, it provides a summary of the problems that it found. 6Correct any problems that are found by following the on-screen instructions. 7Click OK. Help and SupportFor more information about checking...