Windows-PC: What's your diagnostic / maintenance routine?

I'm a longtime Mac guy. Ben using pc's now for about 2 years, but I never really got a handle on how to keep my OS, drives, etc in pristine shape. I'm stating to get constant crashes with reaper (about every 30 minutes) and it's freaking me out. Re-installing reaper doesn't help. I'm considering re-installing my XP OS, but can't I just run some kind of diagnostic app? (maybe even just run diagnostics from the OS install CD?) Can some of you list your maintenance routines. What software you use, and when? I'm not looking for free, or cheap. I'm looking for GOOD. I need my system to be 100% dependable 24/7. Thanks

These links might be of help!! Cheers! I think those should be a very good start!!! Cheeers!!

crashing every 30 minutes isn't normal at all. the crashing just started? maybe it's a plugin not cooperating with reaper? i keep a separate temp file partition and dump important stuff to an external drive. maintenance here is just an occasional defrag of my windows partition. works for me.

brainwreck, I've been thinking the same thing. It feels like a plugin issue or some other incompatibility. I'm going to pare things down as soon as I can to test. Still, I'd like to get my maintenance routine happening. ------------ Solar, thanks for those links! They are useful, but most don't address my issue. I'm not looking for optimization routines or thread-trimming, etc. I have that fairly well covered. I'm looking for OS & drive maintenance, plus general hardware/software system health.

No, no, no. I'm talking about diagnostic / maintenance software. Something like Norton, Tech tool Pro (Mac only) Disk Warrior, etc. Are you telling me you guys actually don't do this? That's insane.

i cringe at the thought of installing norton on any computer that i come into contact with.

It's insane to think you DON'T need it. (g) Grin aside, I'm serious. Everything in your system gets more & more corrupted every day. It's a ticking time-bomb if you don't maintain. I appreciate everyone's time so far, but hopefully there are folks here who understand this and can offer some tips.

Cableaddict, use something like AusLogics to defragment your drives, make sure your system and audio drives always have a decent amount of free space (especially the system drive) as windows likes breathing room. use a registry cleaner if you like and something like ccleaner to take care of temp directories, and make sure when installing software to NOT let it install a 'quicklaunch' option as this just steals cpu for basically no reason. The whole DiskWarrior, TechToolPro situation on a Mac has to do with HFS (which aught to be dubbed Horrible File System) seeming to have chronic issues with large scale data management. I know several 'pro' mac users who work in other smaller data file fields that never have any issues with such things. On the other hand every audio 'pro' and every mac I know and work with has issues with it. I have not had similar problems with ntfs which seems much easier to repair and maintain. I'm also militant about my backup regime which always helps one sleep at night.

Cableaddict, I'll give you a couple tips and some links... First off run 'chkdsk' this is a Microsoft tool that will find 'file system' and 'hard disk' errors and repair them, see here: . Go to: Start, Run, then type "chkdsk /r" (without the quotes and be sure to include the 'space' before the slash). Then reboot. 'chkdsk' will run before windows starts. This could take awhile depending on the size of your drive. If you have other partitions or drives that need to be checked the 'kb' article in the link above should pointed in the right direction. Next, defrag your hard drive (*after* running chkdsk). I use 'Perfect Disk' from Raxco, Diskeeper is also good. Please stay away from the Symantec *crap*. Normally I don't recommend registry cleaners, 99% of the time it's not necessary and if you are not sure what you're doing you trash Windows in a heartbeat. That said, here a set of tools that include a very good registry cleaner: . This has an uncrippled 'demo'. Make sure to make back ups and know how to restore them. Here's a whole bunch of *very* good monitoring and diagnostic tools: . One more... here a good, friendly Windows forum: . They have been around for several years. If you have a 'problem' they'll stick with you till it's sorted. This ought to keep you busy for a couple minutes. :D If you have questions holler.

bullshark, There still is room for maintenance, unless you don't make changes to your system. I create 'new' images on a regular basis, to update any changes made to my system. Before I create the new images, I run chkdsk, then defrag, then create the images. I'll definitely agree that *most* apps that claim to maintain your system and increase your performance are total rubbish and totally unnecessary. Same with most registry cleaners, they are 'dangerous' in the wrong hands. It basically boils down to 'whatever works for you'.