|
|
Defrag Your Computer
By Steven Standeven
Windows comes with a collection of house cleaning tools including
ScanDisk, Disk Defragmenter, and Disk Cleanup to help keep your disk
in peak working order.
Why should you bother with the housework? A couple of reasons.
First, disks are hard working, mechanical devices and like all
mechanical devices, prone to failure. A little preventative
maintenance can warn you of potential problems and fix minor
glitches before they can do damage to your data. Second, the way
files are organized on your drive has a perceptible impact on the
performance of your computer. If your files are stored neatly,
end-to-end, without fragmentation, reading and writing to the disk
is speedier.
There's a simple solution to file fragmentation: use Windows Disk
Defragmenter (Start –> Programs –> Accessories –> System Tools –>
Disk Defragmenter). This utility, commonly called Defrag, gathers
all the scattered file fragments and writes them into adjacent
clusters, so each file occupies a contiguous section of the disk.
Steps to defrag:
-
Delete all unnecessary files before you start defragging.
Uninstall unwanted programs, archive old data, clean out
Internet Explorer temporary files, cookies and history,
delete unwanted backups, and then run Disk Cleanup (Start –>
Programs –> Accessories –> System Tools –> Disk Cleanup)
-
Defrag also works best when completely uninterrupted.
Background programs such as Task Scheduler and anti-virus
software can cause Defrag to stop and restart repeatedly. It
can be run overnight if necessary; just remember to cancel
the sleep or shutdown process.
-
Click Start –> Programs –> Accessories –> System Tools –>
Disk Defragmenter.
-
Select the drive you wish to defrag if you have more than
one.
-
Click Analyze to see if your PC needs defrag attention.
-
If it does, click on Defragment, sit back & relax.
| Steven
Standeven has worked in the IT field for a variety of
leasing companies for more than 20 years, most recently as
systems administrator. He is a former teacher, having taught
Web design at the junior college level for two years. He is
also an entrepreneur. Last year he started his own real
estate investment business and he is in the process of
developing an economic literacy program for adults.
|
|
|
