Defrag Computer - The How's and Why's of Computer Defragging

I'm sure you've heard it a million times by now, "You should really defrag that computer." You might have even gone ahead and done it. But what is it? Why are you bothering with a computer defrag? Are there any programs out there better than the Windows defragment tool? Continue reading to find out.

Why a computer needs a defrag

First of all, what is a defrag of a computer doing and what is the importance here? I'm sure you've been given the basic explanation of "it organizes your hard drive." You want the gritty details? If you are more into practical uses, skip down a couple paragraphs. Every computer keeps track of where its files are by using a file allocation table. Think of the hard drive as if it were a graph. On that graph you might plot a point and say, "This dot is at coordinate X=2, Y=4" representing the X and Y planes. Your hard drive does a similar thing. It will make a note that file "music.mp3" is at a certain location. Your computer then places that data into that section of the hard drive. It will save data in a sequential method as much as possible. Think of it like a tape you're recording your soaps on. At some point, your tape will fill up, but that's ok, you can delete some of the earlier tape. But what if you delete the first hour long show, and the third hour long show, leaving the second where it was? You have 2 hours of free tape, but they aren't sequential. Can you still save a 2 hour long show without erasing your 2nd show?

In a computer, it turns out the answer to that question is yes! The file allocation table will simply make a note that the file starts at one point, then breaks up, and finishes at another point. The hard drive can still read the file as one contiguous piece of data. Ok, if you're still with me, you're probably wondering, "...and your point is what?" While the computer can deal with that "fragmented" file, it slows it down some because it has to jump around to find both parts of the file. This is a very basic example. Many computers have tons of files fragmented across 5,10,15,20, or more sections of the computer! That will significantly slow down your access time to those files! The answer is to defrag that computer!

How to defrag that computer

To defrag a computer is simple. I'll assume we're talking Windows here. Go to start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Disk Defragmenter. Select the drive you want to defrag and hit defrag! That's all there is to it! If you aren't keen on the Windows Defragmenter, there are alternatives. I personally recommend Disk Keeper and many people like PerfectDisk. They generally do a similar job as the Windows defrag tool, but in much less time.

While defragmenting helps, it's only half the problem! Get free information about this silent computer killer at my home page!

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