Over time and with regular use, the files and folders on a computer’s hard drive become broken or fragmented. When computer files are fragmented, they’re often disorganized and in the wrong place. This can cause the system to run slowly and have processing problems. Defragmenting your computer collects and organizes files, which generally improves recovery time and overall computer performance.
Defragmenting a hard drive is a common maintenance process that rearranges data contiguously and ultimately increases performance.
For example, a computer program must access various files on the hard drive each time it is run. If these files are spread out on opposite sides of the hard drive, instead of being collected and organized in an orderly fashion, as they should be, the computer will have to work harder and take longer to access the information it needs. In some cases, a severe defrag can even cause a program to stop working altogether.
Windows operating system systems have tools for disk defragmentation.
Defragmentation, also known as “shredding,” reorganizes your hard drive by bringing related pieces of data together so that files are organized contiguously. As a result, the computer system can access files more efficiently. Organizing files and folders efficiently, defragmentation will leave your computer’s free space to a large extent. This will allow new files to be saved in an orderly fashion, thus reducing the need for future defragmentation.
Benefits of defragmentation
As the total size of disk drives continues to increase, regular defragmentation of a computer can even help increase its lifespan. A system has to work hard to collect fragmented information on ever larger disks. Considering the amount of work this requires, it seems likely that defragmentation can help a hard drive last much longer.
While some computer experts argue that current operating systems are efficient enough to eliminate the need for defragmentation altogether, it is generally recommended that computer users defragment their systems on a regular basis. Ordinary users will probably find that bi-monthly defragmentation produces sufficient results. Users who notice a frequent loss of efficiency and speed may choose to defrag more frequently.
how to defrag
All computer systems come with some sort of defragmentation tool, commonly found under the “System Tools” option in Windows-based PC environments. These tools usually come with an analysis feature that will actually tell users whether or not their computers need to be defragmented. You can also defrag disks at a “C prompt” using the “defrag” command. Additional information on how to defrag a computer should also be available on the Internet.
