How often should I vacuum my Harddrive and how?

Question

The question says it all really lol. Any help would be most appreciated.

I've heard that the harddrive can become clogged with dust and dirt and should be hoovered at least once every five months. I've run everything else - spybot, disk clean up you name it.

I've just realised I meant the base unit. Sorry!

Answer 1

To clean your computer out-yes you CAN use a vacuum, if you have one of those hoses that you use on curtains or stairs or such. Use the "crevice" tool to suck out any major dust bunnies, beiing careful not to actually bend or damage anything. THEN use your canned air to blow out the inside of your case, taking special pains to make sure that you get all the dust out of the CPU's heatsink & fan (attached directly to the motherboard), as well as any add-on video card. (High end video cards will have their own heatsink and fan).

Answer 2

I'd have to agree with the commetns on the air can to blow dust loose.
NEVER NEVER NEVER use a domestic vacuum cleaner on a PC . . . the normal household vacuums create WAY to much static to let them near a PC.

A small amount of dust on the bottom of a tower case is fine, but a buildup across a motherboard ina desktop case can lead to heat issues and a reduction in gerneral insualtion levers as some dust is slightly conductive.

If the PC is particularly dusty, take it outside (unplugged) hold at angle so the open side is downwards and blow air can into the corners etc to allow dust to come loose and fal out.

Alternatively you can get small bettery powered vacuums that are OK for getting small amounts of dust out. These are specific small PC type ones, not "car vacs"

Answer 3

Hi- I was going to ask if you had washed it first:) Dust inside a machine really doesn't do any harm unless you are in a harsh environment. Once a year is fine or when u are doing an upgrade- Some machines bring air in to cool the cpu and dust with it- check out an memory install I found on 3w.vista-memory.info to see some pre-cautions to take.

Answer 4

Untrue unless you are in a very dusty place.
The hard drive cant be clean as its all sealed, you most likely meant the computer box itself, inside there are fans, like processor fans, case fans, those you can easily use a soft old toothbruch to dust of any trapped dust on the blades.

Answer 5

i wouldnt reccomend vacuming a pc. instead buy the canned air from your local wal mart or computer store for about 5 or 6 dollars. liberally blow out your pc to remove dust build up from within the computer case. a hard drive is sealed and does not need to be blown out or vaccumed. also blow out the back of te dc power supply.
good luck

Answer 6

You mean physically vacuuming the hard drive? If so, you should get that air in a can first to get every nook... then vaccuum away from all your parts.

Answer 7

You should never 'vacuum' your hard drive. Do you mean clean it as in defragging and removing spyware?