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Defragmenting Your Hard Drive
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Improvements to
system performance and reliability after defragmenting a hard
drive are well
documented. Applications load
faster, the computer boots in less time, backup
requires less time to transfer data to storage devices, and many
more.
Computers are machines and
like your car or truck,
they need maintenance now and then to keep
running smoothly. The hard drive is one of the busiest mechanical parts of
your computer and probably the most overlooked for
routine maintenance.
An important maintenance task is defragmenting the hard
drive.
These are frequently asked questions regarding defragmentation.
What Is File Fragmentation?
Why Do I Need to Defragment My Hard Drive?
What Does Defragmenting My Hard Drive Do?
How Often Do I Need to Defragment My Hard Drive?
How Do I Defragment My Hard Drive? |
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What Is File Fragmentation?
Think of your computer's hard disk drive as a large warehouse for
your data. Every bin in the warehouse represents a file, and the
boxes filling the bin represent the bytes of data that make up the
file.
In order to ensure fast access to your bins, you want to keep the
bins at the front of the warehouse full, so they can be pulled from
as quickly as possible. Let's say, however, that when you get a new
shipment of product, you completely fill up the bin, have more boxes
of product to store, and the bins next to it are full as well. In
most warehouses, the extra product is moved to the back of the
warehouse and a note left in the original bin as to where the
overstock is stored.
Your computer works in much the same way. Space is allocated on the
hard drive to keep each file. To keep your computer running
smoothly, files are often stored right next to each other in the
first available space. However, if you go back and add a few pages
to that story you were writing, the computer doesn't see any space
on the hard drive to
store the new data. Therefore, it moves the new data into the next
available spot on the hard drive and leaves itself a "note" of sorts
as to where the rest of your file is. This splitting of the file
into separate pieces is known as "file fragmentation".
Why Do I Need to Defragment My Hard Drive?
When a drive partition has been running low on free space for a
while it usually becomes very fragmented, so you really want to run
the disk defragmenter.
As more and more files get more and more fragmented, it takes the
computer longer to access these files, whether you're opening,
editing, or even deleting them. Think again about the warehouse,
when someone purchases the entire stock of a product, the warehouse
employees may have to visit 3-4 different bins to fill the order.
This same exact thing is happening on your hard drive.
What Does Defragmenting My Hard Drive Do?
The disk defragmentation process takes all the pieces of a file and
puts them back together in one single spot on the hard drive.
Additionally, your file is moved toward the front of the drive so
that it can be accessed faster.
How Often Do I Need to Defragment My Hard Drive?
It depends on how you use your computer. If you access
a lot of large files on a frequent basis, chances are your files
will fragment more quickly than someone who only checks his e-mail a
few times a week. Generally speaking, the average home user should
defragment his or her hard drive 4-6 times per year (which is every
2-3 months).
This is not something that you need to do every day. Remember, you
are maintaining here. Performing the operation once a week is good
for those who use their computer every day and create a lot of
documents and files. The best thing about Windows is that these
maintenance operations can be set up on a schedule so that they work
behind the scenes like Santa at Christmas.
Schedule maintenance operations at odd times like early in the morning or
in the middle of the night, when you are not at work on your
computer in order to keep them from slowing down your PC while
youre trying to work.
How Do I Defragment My Hard Drive?
Your Windows XP operating system should have a built-in utility for performing
this task. You can find it by Left clicking your Start
button, then Programs, Accessories, and System
Tools. The drop down menu for System Tools include links to
Disk Cleanup and Disk Defragmenter.
Run the Disk Cleanup first, it helps free up space on your
hard drive. Disk Cleanup searches your drive, and then shows you
temporary files, Internet cache files, and unnecessary program files
that you can safely delete. You can direct Disk Cleanup to delete
some or all of those files.
If you are uncertain about the procedure, check your manual, Help files, or favorite search engine
for the full procedure. Although the process can take a long time,
depending on the size of your files and how many files are
fragmented, starting the process is usually straightforward.
The Disc Defragmenting utility is also located in System
Tools. Click on it to open the defragmenter, select the 'C' drive
(you might have a 'D' drive, too). Follow the instructions in the
Help file and prepare for a rather long wait while the procedure is
underway.
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...or follow the Step by step
instructions here --
1 Take a look at the Add/Remove utility on the Control
Panel page. There could be a few programs listed there that you
don't use, or need anymore. Bite the bullet and remove them to free
up disk space and resources.
2. Clean out your Cookies and Temp files. Much of it is just
clutter that accumulates from regular use. CCleaner is a
great Free utility that will do the job. (Free download at
www.ccleaner.com/download) Comes with easy to follow
instructions.
3. Turn Off Windows Indexing Service to Free Up System
Resources. To turn off the Indexing service, follow these steps:
A. Double-click My Computer, point to Explorer Bar on the View
menu, and then
click Search.
B. Click Change preferences, and then click Without Indexing
Service.
C. Click No, do not enable Indexing Service, and then
click OK.
4. Turn Off System Sounds to Free Up System Resources. By
Default Windows XP has sounds assigned to many actions on your PC.
If you disable these you can be sure no PC performance is lost due
to missing sounds.
5. The most important, and something you should do regularly (see
How Often above) -
DEFRAGMENT your Hard Drive
Your Windows Defragmentation utility will defragment your hard drive
and organize all the files on it. It will be easier for your hard
disk to find them and in turn execute them faster.
Start with Drive C, then consider doing the same for Drive D and any
other file storage partitions you may have.
Here are three important things to keep in mind before running
defrag:
1. Make sure you remove unused programs and run CCleaner
before you run defrag
(so you dont realign unnecessary files on your hard drive).
2. Try to keep the percentage of free space over 15% on
the disk you are going to
defrag this enables Disk Defragmenter to complete its job
with the best results.
3. Defragging takes time - sometimes a lot, so be prepared to
wait, but it's more than
worth the inconvenience.
And a note of caution. If these steps don't improve your system
performance,
It Might take More
than Defragging to Speed Up Your Computer.
You might have a more serious problem
with a malware infection.
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If you are using the Windows 7
Operating System, follow these steps -
Click the Start Icon in the Bottom
Task tray and then select and
click on Control Panel to open the dialog
box, then
click on the System and Security icon
which opens another dialog box.
Then under Administrative Tools, first
click on Free up disc space
and select the C Drive,
click the OK Button and perform the clean up
as we mentioned above, then
Return to Administrative Tools and click
on Defragment your hard drive
to open another dialog box where you can schedule future
"defrags",
and run a Current "defrag" session.
Choose your "C Drive" and click on "Analyze
Disc" or "Defragment Disc".
There are instructions there to help you choose one or
the other options.
You can probably skip the Analyze Disc option and start
to defrag your disc.
Be prepared to wait - it will take a good bit of time
for the process to finish.
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If it's been a while since defragmenting your hard drive,
you should notice a significant improvement in your computer
performance, speed and stability after running the defrag operation.
Be sure your Operating System has all of the latest updates, your
Firewall is enabled, and your virus and spyware protection is up to
date, then run the appropriate scans.
.. Richard Rossbauer
Follow
me on Twitter
{05-2012} |
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