4. Saving your hard drive space from the system restore utility

By default, Windows XP's system restore utility uses a mammoth 12% of each hard drive in your system. That's a lot of wasted space. By reducing this number, you reduce the amount of restore points system restore can create, but this does not adversely affect the functionality of the program. System restore will delete older restore points to make room for newer ones.

To decrease the amount of space system restore uses:

Right click on 'my computer' and select 'properties' then the 'system restore' tab.

The window below contains each of the hard disks installed on your system. Highlight each one in turn and press the 'settings' key.

Move the slider to adjust the amount of drive space used. I would recommend no more than 2-4% of each drive.

5. Tweak insurance part 3: Restoring BIOS defaults

It's quite possible that during the course of some of our overclocking tips presented later in the Beginners Guide, your motherboard could seize up and refuse to boot. Don't panic. It is easy to restore the default settings of any modern motherboard fortunately.

If this happens, what you need to do is power off your system, open the side of the case and locate the CMOS battery.

This small battery provides the necessary power to store the changes you have made to the BIOS defaults. If you remove the battery or switch the BIOS clearing jumper (generally found next to the battery, but this may vary, consult your manual) the CMOS memory that holds the changes will be cleared and the BIOS defaults restored, along with your ability to boot your system.

To clear the CMOS settings:

Locate and switch the CMOS clearing jumper, then press the power button once (nothing should happen, but the BIOS will be restored) before resetting it in its original position and powering your system on.

Or

Remove the battery with the aid of a flat head screwdriver. Leave it out for about 10 minutes to be safe, then replace it and restart the system.

Or....

Some motherboard makers allow you to load in the BIOS defaults when you boot up, without having to crack open the case and fiddle around with jumpers or batteries. This may not work for every single motherboard, or computer out there, but it is worth a shot.

First power off the PC, then while holding the "Insert" key down, power the computer back up, and don't let go of that key. If things go as planned, the computer should boot up, and give some little warning about "BIOS checksums loaded." From there, you can let go of the key, and go right into the BIOS and reset it completely, or set your own favorite performance settings. Of course if this doesn't work, then go back and follow our directions for how to reset the CMOS as described above.