Chapter 7. Preventing Problems; General Tips For Preventing Problems - Lenovo ThinkPad E450 User Manual

Chapter 7. Preventing problems

An important part of owning a ThinkPad notebook computer is maintenance. With proper care, you can
avoid common problems. The chapter provides information that can help you keep your computer running
smoothly.
• "General tips for preventing problems" on page 73
• "Making sure device drivers are current" on page 74
• "Taking care of your computer" on page 75

General tips for preventing problems

• Check the capacity of your hard disk drive, hybrid drive, or solid-state drive from time to time. If the
hard disk drive, hybrid drive, or solid-state drive gets too full, the Windows operating system will slow
down and might produce errors.
To check the capacity of the hard disk drive, hybrid drive, or solid-state drive, do the following:
– For Windows 7: Click Start ➙ Computer.
– For Windows 8.1: Open the File Explorer.
– For Windows 10: Open the File Explorer and click This PC.
• Empty your recycle bin on a regular basis.
• Use disk defragment tool regularly on your hard disk drive, hybrid drive, or solid-state drive to improve
data seek and read times.
• To free up disk space, uninstall unused application programs.
Note: You also might want to look for program duplication or overlapping versions.
• Clean out your Inbox, Sent, and Trash folders from your e-mail client program.
• Back up your data at least once a week. If critical data is present, it is a good idea to perform a daily
backup operation. Lenovo has many backup options available for your computer. Rewritable external
optical drives are available for most machines and are easily installed.
• Schedule system restore operations to take a system snapshot periodically. For more information about
system restore, see Chapter 9 "Recovery overview" on page 97.
• Update device drivers and the UEFI BIOS when needed.
• Profile your machine at http://www.lenovo.com/support to keep up to date with current drivers and
revisions.
• Keep up to date for device drivers on other non-Lenovo hardware. You might want to read the device
driver information release notes prior to updating for compatibility or known issues.
• Keep a log book. Entries might include major hardware or software changes, driver updates, minor issues
you have experienced, and how you resolved the minor issues.
• If you ever need to run a recovery on your computer to return the preinstalled contents onto the machine,
the following tips might help along the way:
– Remove all external devices such as the printer, keyboard, and so on.
– Make sure that your battery is charged and your computer has the ac power connected.
– Access ThinkPad Setup and load the default settings.
– Restart the computer and start the recovery operation.
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