HOW TO DEFRAG YOUR HARD DRIVE – AND WHY

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One of the best ways to speed up your computer is to defrag the hard drive. Face it, the hard drive is the heart of your computer, and like any mechanical device it is prone to failure. A little preventive maintenance cannot only warn you of potential problems before they occur and fix any hiccups before they damage your data, but also improve the performance of your computer.

What is File Fragmentation?

For your computer to work at peak performance, files on the hard drive should be lined up neatly—one after the other, end-to-end, without gaping spaces between them. But as you use your computer, the files get fragmented. How? When you create a new file, it can be split up into blocks and stored in multiple locations. Deleting documents or programs leaves empty spaces. And it only gets worse over time.

So when you want to use one of those fragmented files, your hard drive has to work extra hard to read and write—zipping across the drive platter to find all the pieces and parts. If a file is written in several parts across the hard drive, it takes longer to open. Defragmenting or “defragging” the hard drive is like running a virtual broom over it, sweeping the files together again.

If you use Vista or as your , you can stop reading now and go play. Both of these newer versions of Windows automatically defrag the disk in the background when the computer is idle. Problem solved.

But if you use Windows XP, you need to regularly do a little hard drive house-cleaning to keep your PC in top working order. This is an easy task using the Disk Defragmenter tool that comes with Windows XP.

To Use Disk Defragmenter

1. Click Start and then click “All Programs” 2. Click “Accessories” and then click “System Tools” 3. Choose “Disk Defragmenter” 4. Select the drive you want to defrag (usually “C:”)

Disk Defragmenter

1. Click the “Analyze” button to find out the estimated disk usage before defragmentation. 2. When the analysis is complete, you can choose to view the report. 3. Click the “Defragment” button to begin the defrag . This utility will collect the scattered file fragments and write them to adjacent clusters so each file occupies an unbroken section of the hard drive. In addition, it shows you a colorful visual display of the process. IMPORTANT: Do not use your computer while the defrag utility is working. Each time you write to disk, the defrag begins anew.

WARNING: If your hard drive is 8GB or less, this utility works fine. But if you are using a larger hard drive, Disk Defragmenter will take the better part of a day to do its job.