How to Defragment Your Hard Drive



What is defragmenting and why should you do it?

In order to keep your computer operating in an efficient and effective way, it's important to defragment your hard drive. But before you take your computer to an expensive technician to have it defragmented, you should know what defragmenting is and how you can easily do it yourself.

Fragmentation occurs when your computer saves a file, but breaks it into pieces and saves it in different places. It does this when there isn't enough storage space on your computer to save the file in its original location. Sometimes, when you edit or alter a file in a way that makes it larger than the original, there isn't enough room to save it in the same place. Your computer keeps a record of every place it stores these fragmented bits of files and it is able to retrieve the pieces when it needs to access the file again. The location of each file, fragmented or defragmented, is saved in your computers File Allocation Table. It's like a catalogue of files that your computer can search to relocate what it needs.

When your computer searches for a saved file and reunites all the pieces, this process is called defragmentation. Your computer's File Allocation Table is like a huge warehouse with lots of information. As such, the defragmentation process can take a significant amount of time, especially if it's been a while since your files were last defragmented.

The defragmentation process is popular because it is a simple method of increasing your operating system's efficiency and overall health. However, the process can be time consuming so you need to set aside anywhere from 30 minutes to several hours in order to complete the process.

Defragmenting your hard drive:

  1. Shut down all applications that are running. Shortcut: press Ctrl+Alt+Delete to check which applications are still running. Select "End Task" to end the applications. You should close applications that are constantly running, like your screen savers and anti-virus software.
  2. Open the "Start" menu.
  3. Select "Programs", then "Accessories", then "System Tools" and then finally select "Disk Defragmenter."
  4. When the "Select Drive" pops up, select "Settings."
  5. Click on "Check the drive for errors" and "Rearrange program files so my programs start faster."
  6. You can select which drives you would like to defragment by clicking on the menu and then hitting "OK."
  7. Left click on the drive that you want to defragment and select "Analyze." Your computer will tell you if you need to defragment it or not.
  8. If the drive does need defragmenting, select "Defragment."
  9. Your computer might tell you that you are unable to defrag the drive. This would appear in the form of an error message. If so, run the scandisk utility by clicking on: Start menu>Programs>Accessories>System Tools>Scandisk
  10. Once you are finished defragmenting, exit the application.

We recommend executing the defragmentation process about once a month, and especially after you install or download new software.

 

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