When you defragment a hard drive
| When you defragment a hard drive |
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Defragmentation, When you defragment a hard drive, you use a software utility to arrange the order of your files so that each file is represented in a physically continuous segment. Defragmentation can improve your hard drive performance because it can read any particular file in a continuous stream instead of jumping here and there around a hard drive to locate each fragment. One of the most important things you can do to keep your system running at peak performance is to regularly defragment your computer. In the course of normal usage, files are regularly being read from and written to the disk, often in small chunks. As a result, pieces of files end up getting scattered around the disk, which compromises your computer's performance. If your computer runs Microsoft Windows 95/98, you can run a utility program called a "disk defragmenter," to resolve this problem. The "disk defragmenter" finds the scattered pieces of files and reorganizes them into contiguous chunks on your hard disk, making them run more efficiently. It also moves the files that you use most often to the beginning of the hard disk where they'll load faster. How do I use the disk defragmenter tool?
Can I use my pc while defragmenting? YES, however, the utility may take an hour or two to run and slows down other applications; so, you might want to defragment your hard drive when you are not using your PC. How often should I do this? How often you should defragment your files depends on the type of work you do. If most of your computer work is word processing, you'll need to defragment about four times a year. If you use programs that create several temporary files (Web browsers, scanning software, music programs, etc.) or if you work with large files (accounting files, imaging files, or complicated spreadsheets), you should defragment your hard drive more often. |
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