general questions

[wg]

I am running XP. Is it a good idea or necessary to
run "error-check" of "defrag" with XP? I was taught to
run it with regularity with 98. If so how often? Is it
true that running error-check too often shortens the life
of the hard-drive? Finally, I seem to receive XP updates
through my aol browser, which I always install. Do I
need to install the update for XP on the microsoft site
or are the updates I receive and download the equivalent?

 

[John Dingley]

There is no need to run disk error checking unless you are having an
associated problem.

Defragging depends on how much file creation etc you do, but once a week
should be fine.