Chapter7.Preventingproblems
AnimportantpartofowningaThinkPadnotebookcomputerismaintenance.Withpropercare,youcan
avoidcommonproblems.Thechapterprovidesinformationthatcanhelpyoukeepyourcomputerrunning
smoothly.
•“Generaltipsforpreventingproblems”onpage73
•“Makingsuredevicedriversarecurrent”onpage74
•“Takingcareofyourcomputer”onpage75
Generaltipsforpreventingproblems
•Checkthecapacityofyourharddiskdrive,hybriddrive,orsolid-statedrivefromtimetotime.Ifthe
harddiskdrive,hybriddrive,orsolid-statedrivegetstoofull,theWindowsoperatingsystemwillslow
downandmightproduceerrors.
Tocheckthecapacityoftheharddiskdrive,hybriddrive,orsolid-statedrive,dothefollowing:
–ForWindows7:ClickStart➙Computer.
–ForWindows8.1:OpentheFileExplorer.
–ForWindows10:OpentheFileExplorerandclickThisPC.
•Emptyyourrecyclebinonaregularbasis.
•Usediskdefragmenttoolregularlyonyourharddiskdrive,hybriddrive,orsolid-statedrivetoimprove
dataseekandreadtimes.
•Tofreeupdiskspace,uninstallunusedapplicationprograms.
Note:Youalsomightwanttolookforprogramduplicationoroverlappingversions.
•CleanoutyourInbox,Sent,andTrashfoldersfromyoure-mailclientprogram.
•Backupyourdataatleastonceaweek.Ifcriticaldataispresent,itisagoodideatoperformadaily
backupoperation.Lenovohasmanybackupoptionsavailableforyourcomputer.Rewritableexternal
opticaldrivesareavailableformostmachinesandareeasilyinstalled.
•Schedulesystemrestoreoperationstotakeasystemsnapshotperiodically.Formoreinformationabout
systemrestore,seeChapter9“Recoveryoverview”onpage97
.
•UpdatedevicedriversandtheUEFIBIOSwhenneeded.
•Profileyourmachineathttp://www.lenovo.com/supporttokeepuptodatewithcurrentdriversand
revisions.
•Keepuptodatefordevicedriversonothernon-Lenovohardware.Youmightwanttoreadthedevice
driverinformationreleasenotespriortoupdatingforcompatibilityorknownissues.
•Keepalogbook.Entriesmightincludemajorhardwareorsoftwarechanges,driverupdates,minorissues
youhaveexperienced,andhowyouresolvedtheminorissues.
•Ifyoueverneedtorunarecoveryonyourcomputertoreturnthepreinstalledcontentsontothemachine,
thefollowingtipsmighthelpalongtheway:
–Removeallexternaldevicessuchastheprinter,keyboard,andsoon.
–Makesurethatyourbatteryischargedandyourcomputerhastheacpowerconnected.
–AccessThinkPadSetupandloadthedefaultsettings.
–Restartthecomputerandstarttherecoveryoperation.
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