OTT OS Maintenance, anyone else?

mrk

mrk

mrk

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^ Rolling maintenance.............................................................^ Backup store > Whole drive Synctoyd to External drive.

I like to stay on top of backups and regular scans to clear out left over files and registry entries from uninstalled games and programs as well as regularly maintain and backup program settings and OS folders.

Anyone else do such OTT (but necessary) maintenance? It avoids having a cluttered system at least :)
 
I'm the same, I don't have a backup program but that would be quite cool. Perhaps when I get round to buying a small SAN. Offload a backup to that perhaps.

But I run weekly items such as:-

Disk Cleanup (Win7 built-in)
Disk Defrag (Win7 built-in)
Disk Check (Win7 built-in)
CCleaner
Comodo System Cleaner
Spybot scan
Malwarebytes scan
Nod32 scan
HOSTS file
HijackThis scan
SFC /scannow (not so often, but like to make sure the OS files are all correct, etc)

That's it really. :)
 
Backups I completely agree with.

System maintenance on the other hand I keep simple. Automatic updates turned on, an antivirus product in place and updated and generally keeping crapware off the computer in the first place.

No defragging, registry "cleaners" or anything like that. I don't run memtest or scan the disks unless I'm seeing any symptoms. I don't even run a regular full-system virus scan.
 
Robert said:
mrk - do you direct your Gmail account to a client and then back that up?
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No I use Gmail backup which pulls mail in from Gmail itself :p

Robert said:
Just downloaded Gmail Backup from http://www.gmail-backup.com/ - presume it's what you use mrk?
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Yep
theheyes said:
Backups I completely agree with.

System maintenance on the other hand I keep simple. Automatic updates turned on, an antivirus product in place and updated and generally keeping crapware off the computer in the first place.

No defragging, registry "cleaners" or anything like that. I don't run memtest or scan the disks unless I'm seeing any symptoms. I don't even run a regular full-system virus scan.
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CCleaner/spybot etc are not always used to clean "crapware" though, they clean out things left behind from old programs and games and the latter clean out tracking cookies and files left by websites - something you cannot avoid if you're a regular web surfer.

As well as Temp file folders and application temp folders which build up over time it's best to keep these clean.
 
i have robocopy backup my data. just a simple mirror of one partition to an external drive. all my games/documents/music/videos/data/application preferences are stored on this drive so someone could nuke my windows install at any moment in time and it wouldn't affect me at all.

as for maintenance.... i use ccleaner to tidy up temp files and whatnot. that's about it. :p

i just don't install crap in the first place. prevention is better than cure.
 
I use robocopy for my Music/Photos/Videos

Robocopy for Steam dir

I manually copy saved games every now and again

I don't have any documents at all, and I just rely on online gmail, nothing important on there worth backing up..

On my recycle bin I have the 'run ccleaner' link which I do every now and again

my Firefox clears itself on exit of temp files etc, and my profile gets 7z'd when I do my robocopys
 
marc2003 said:
i just don't install crap in the first place. prevention is better than cure.
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I don't know why people keep saying this because it doesn't hold true at all these days. Application developers may be smart but they lack the common sense to make their apps clean up after themselves once uninstalled. It's all to easy to install and uninstall a perfectly crap free app or game but end up with registry entries and files/folders left over in the user directory (roaming/local) which just don't need to be there any more.
 
WTF are you smoking? you're not making any sense at all. i just said i don't install rubbish yet you're rambling on about the mess left behind when un-installing programs. :confused:
 
You've misunderstood again.

It doesn't matter what you install/uninstall whether it's rubbish or genuine - registry entries and files/folders are commonly left behind after uninstall/update to new versions by many programs.

When you delete things from the desktop obsolete file references are left in the registry etc - this is the kind of maintenance I am referring to.

Unless by "rubbish" you are on about to every application that comes with an installer in which case how do you use your OS with no applications?

Edit*
Just an FYI, coming across all defensive and abusive doesn't help your case.
 
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I use SyncToy and have a few folders set to backup to a USB drive. I also defrag every month or so, and just make sure there's no unnecessary programs running in the background and starting up with Windows etc, and I find this way I keep on top of things :)
 
mrk said:
No I use Gmail backup which pulls mail in from Gmail itself :p



Yep



CCleaner/spybot etc are not always used to clean "crapware" though, they clean out things left behind from old programs and games and the latter clean out tracking cookies and files left by websites - something you cannot avoid if you're a regular web surfer.

As well as Temp file folders and application temp folders which build up over time it's best to keep these clean.
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Personally don't see why I'd want to backup mail from Gmail, suppose it could get hacked but still.
 
Gmail is an online service and free too, if Gmail goes down or data is lost you're not paying for it and are not bound by a contract that assures your data will be recoverable so having stuff backed up locally is always a good idea and besides, Gmail Backup doesn't take long at all after the first backup as it only pulls in new content and any changes.
 
The best tweaks are the ones that help you work faster or more efficiently. Some tweaks are absolutely useless as more often than not the bottleneck, if there is any, is far more likely to be down to hardware - i.e. slow HDD, not much RAM etc.

You should always clean up after yourself, but to be honest you can go a little OTT for absolutely no gain. At the end of the day the amount of housekeeping you do is entirely down to you. As long as you aren't a fetid cesspool of viruses and malware spreading your crap everywhere, then meh. :p
 
Having Gmail stored locally in mail client and online is enough for me. Unless the Gmail backup allows you to restore it all to Googles server while remembering labels.

Out of interest how long does that all take you? If it's not automated. And isn't there faster free alternative to Microsoft defrag? Admittedly I've not used it from XP days so my assessment of it might be out of date.
 
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Backing up regularly is something I do all the time.

I've somewhat tempered using Ccleaner though since my OS is now installed on an SSD. I only really do it e.g. after installing/reinstalling/uninstalling something etc.
 
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