Several Easy Steps to Boost Your Computer's Speed

Step 8 Check Disk for Errors

You can help solve some system problems and improve the performance of your computer by making sure that your hard disk has no errors. This is an important step as it allows windows not only to check for failing sectors of the hard drive, but also to check for corruption to system files (which causes a significant amount of system slow-down).

Doing this will prevent many problems from occurring on your computer.

1. Open Computer by clicking the Start button, and then clicking Computer.

2. Right-click the hard disk drive that you want to check, and then click Properties.

3. Click the Tools tab, and then, under Error-checking, click Check Now. Administrator permission required if you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.
      To automatically repair problems with files and folders that the scan detects, select Automatically fix file system errors. Otherwise, the disk check will simply report problems but not fix them.
      To perform a thorough disk check, select Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors. This scan attempts to find and repair physical errors on the hard disk itself, and it can take much longer to complete.
      To check for both file errors and physical errors, select both Automatically fix file system errors and Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors.

4. Click Start.

Depending upon the size of your hard disk, this may take several minutes to (most likely) a few hours. For best results, don't use your computer for any other tasks while it's checking for errors.

Thanks to DamionLee for the input!