Taking your computer's temperature and checking its drive

First, let's take its temperature, using CPUID's HWMonitor.....

This not only shows us the temperatures of various parts, it also gives us a look at the voltages inside the box, and at the bottom of that list of voltages, you'll notice one called "Vbat". That's your CMOS battery about the size of a nickel but maybe twice as thick, and located next to your CPU and its fan assembly in a 
little socket with a snap-clip holding it in there. I'm babbling about it because it
is the only voltage on that list that you can do anything about, and you should keep an eye on that, because that little battery provides standby power for your system's clock and other vital systems when the computer is shut down, and if
it dies on you, then you may not be able to boot your computer. It's a 3-volt battery (usually) and it looks a lot like a really large watch battery. It usually is good for about five years, but you ideally should be using a program like this periodically to check its voltage, so you can replace it before it dies completely.

Now let's move on to checking the health of the hard-drive. Depending on its maker, there are different programs for this. The drive in this computer is made by Western Digital, and they provide a program called Data Lifeguard Diagnostic for Windows. It is specifically made for Western Digital Corporation drives, and
I've used it. The one I prefer, however, is made by their competitor Seagate,
and called SeaTools for Windows. The nice thing about it is that it can test almost any kind of drive known to man, not just its own brand, and it does a nice job of it. Here's a screen of its test on my WDC hard-drive, doing what's called a Short Drive Self Test, which is a relatively quick test to confirm that the drive is healthy, and as you will notice, mine passed the test. Seagate says that if it passes the test, you can quit worrying about it, and they should know.

And now that we've checked the CMOS battery as being OK, and the processor isn't overheating (I blew the dust out of its heat sink with 'Ultra Duster' before starting it up today) and we know the fans are running normally, and we've tested the hard-drive's health, we can relax and move on to something else....
hopefully NOT involving reinstalling Windows for a while!