|
Home
News
Products
Services
Contact
FAQ's
| |
DEFRAGMENTING A HARD DRIVE
A hard drive is set up much like a neighborhood in that it has
lots with addresses. Each lot is a certain size (NTFS formatted hard
drives have lots of 4 Kilobites. FAT32 formatted hard drives have lots
of 32 Kilobites in size). As with a neighborhood, each lot has an
address. But unlike a neighborhood, each file - or house - can be a
different size which would mean that house could take up millions or even
billions of lots. When that house takes up lots with sequential
addresses - addresses all in a nice row and next to or adjacent to each other
- the file is said to be contiguous. If it's broken up into many pieces
and scattered across many different lots with non-sequential addresses, it's
said to be fragmented.
A sequential or contiguous file is read faster and easier by
the hard drive since it the hard drive reader doesn't have to jump all over
the "neighborhood" to find the next piece of the file.
Fragmented hard drives, on the other hand, take longer to read the same file
(if it's scattered) which slows the performance of the computer.
Normally a computer can handle a LOT of slowing before it becomes obvious to
the user. When this happens, defragmentation is required.
If you haven't added any programs since you bought
your computer, or suspect that your computer isn't running slow because of a lot of
programs starting up at once when you first start the computer, then it's most likely an
optimization problem. Your hard drive needs to store information in such a way that
it loads as fast as possible. Windows operating system allows you to fix it so that
your hard drive works faster for starting programs and booting. To do this follow
these steps:
(Note:
Instructions are for Windows 2000 and
XP users only. Windows Vista automatically
defragments as it goes.)
1. Double-click on 'My Computer'
2. Right-click on 'C:' drive.
3. Click on 'Properties' at the bottom of the list.
4. Click the Clean-up button.
5. Select all options to clean up (recycle bin, temporary internet
files, etc.) and click OK. Select Yes when asked if you really want to do this.
(DO NOT SELECT COMPRESS FOLDERS. This cleanup will take
quite some time for XP and 2000 users. Be patient.)
6. When the clean up is done, click on the 'Tools' tab at the top of
the window.
7. Click 'Defragment Now...'
8. This may take a LOT of time. Grab a sandwich.
9. When defragmentation is
done, close the Defragmentation window and on the Properties window,
click Check Now under the Error-Checking option.
10. Click the option,
Automatically fix file system errors. Leave the other option
unchecked.
11. Click Check Now.
(Note: It can't check immediately - when asked if you want it to check
at the next start-up, click Yes.)
12. Restart the
computer.
Occasionally, the problem with a slow computer is a
lack of hard drive space. When you right-click on the C: drive and click Properties,
you will see the amount of your hard drive and the drive space used and the space
available. The space available MUST be AT LEAST 15% of your total hard drive for
your computer to operate properly. If it's less than that, back-up files, uninstall
unused or obsolete programs and try to free up hard drive space (click
here to see how to clean out the computer). At worst, you may need to add hard
drive space by purchasing an external hard drive on which to to store large,
personal files.
|
