Benefits: It takes a skilled technician to physically open up and clean a hard drive, but your computer's performance can be optimized by doing such things as clearing out unnecessary files on your hard drive.
Hard Drive Cleaning
Uninstall any programs that are outdated or unnessesary (if you aren't sure if you need the program for your computer to run it's best to just leave the program as is) and go through your folders and delete any files (pictures, mp3's, text documents...) that you don't have a need for.
Empty your "Recycle Bin".
Run ScanDisk which checks and repairs disk errors. From the Start Menu, go to Programs, then go to Accessories, then System Tools, then select Scan Disk. (For Windows '95-Me)
Run Disk Cleanup which automatically deletes temporary files stored on your computer. From the Start Menu, go to Programs, then go to Accessories, then System Tools, then select Disk Cleanup. (For Windows '95 and later)
Run Disk Defragmenter which optimizes your hard drive by rearranging programs, files, and unused space which results in files opening quicker and programs running faster. From the Start Menu, go to Programs, then go to Accessories, then System Tools, then select Disk Defragmenter. Defragmenting may take up to several hours the first time you do it, but will speed up the more frequently you perform this operation.