• Utility software

To diagnose machine problems you usually require a battery of software tools and the more familiar you with these tools the better. So you need a means of carrying your preferred tools around with you for everyday use, you need a toolbox. One thing is for sure just like any toolbox you gather your tools over time and become accustomed to using them. A USB memory device is the ideal toolbox to carry around with you.

Probably one of the first things you do at a troubled machine is to check what state it's in. To help resolve many hardware and some software problems you will probably begin with SiSoft's SANDRA the machine checking utility. This package can provide a means of verifying hardware status of your machine, whether it is setup correctly and checking drivers are up to date and so on.

If you are unsure if there is a particular program or file causing a problem there is the full suite of utilities from System Internals. These range from a more intelligent task manager, to port scanners, file access monitors and so on. Such a variety of tools that you are unlikely to be challenged by any problem and are quite able to cause more damage than enough if you are not careful so be warned.

If you simply need to know something as simple as what's loaded on the hard disk and what how much space its taking up then Scanner can help to give a graphical description of a hard disk layout and usage. A more graphical alternative to the Windows file explorer tool.

Do you need to find that file you have just accidentally erased then try out Restoration. This is a handy utility that can actually get back those files that have been purged from the recycle bin. And we know it works! It can also make sure you really have erased files permanently if that's what you really wanted. As it writes over erased file areas it can take some time to complete but remember to use it with care!

Is your machine slowing down or behaving erratically, then you are probably suffering from remnants of old software clogging up your machine. CCLeaner is a program to clean out your windows installation getting rid of the dross and generally cleaning things up. You must use with care but it may get things going enough for you to operate the system normally. It also has optimisation and privacy tools you can try.