What does chkdsk do? Well, nothing unless you add an option such as /f
What does cleanup do? Gets the junk off your PC
What does defrag do? Does some mysterious realignment and organization of data that's supposed to improve disk performance as well as refresh the magnetic media.
Would you want to defrag all the unneeded crap on your PC and then delete it? Don't think so. That junk slows down the whole defrag process and deleting it later fragments the drive.
I'm not sure how often Chkdsk /f is worthwhile doing. Maybe in the event of unexplained problems with the drive. My two cents. Hope it sounds logical.
Here's a real newbie question from someone who's been computing for 20 years. For some reason tonight I can't remember the correct order for running chkdsk (check disk), cleaning the drive, and defragging. I'm helping a friend to get started with maintenance on a relatively new laptop running XP SP2.
Thanks and Happy Holidays whatever you celebrate!
Alex