When buying a new computer, normally you look for something that has high specifications so that you won’t experience any slowdowns throughout your usage. It is true that the physical components govern the system performance, but it can vary depending on the data stored in your hard disk. Whenever you access information, the hard disk search for the data and normally it isn’t found on one area in the hard disk. This is caused by fragmentation where different parts of the file are scattered throughout the hard disk.
In an average hard disk, there is always data that is being added and removed even if you try to keep your files as clean as possible. As data is written onto your hard disk, it randomly fills up any open spaces. If you let this happen too often without defragging, your computer performance will degrade.
Concept of Defragmentation
What defragmentation does is it tries to assemble all the fragments of files into one continuous stream so that whenever the file needs to be accessed, the hard disk doesn’t have to do much work scanning through the different areas just to load the file. Every individual file in the drive is included so the ideal result is that accessing all files are generally faster. Depending on how fragmented the drive really is, the performance boost varies.
How to Defrag
Defragging can be done in all operating systems starting from Windows 95 and beyond without any need of external software. You should be able to find the “Disk Defragmenter” on your Start Menu in the “System Tools” folder which is located in the “Accessories” folder. From there, you can choose what drive you wish to defragment first and then let the program do its work. For best results, make sure no other programs are running and leave the computer idle so the process finishes faster.
Other Methods
The Windows method of defragging your computer happens to be the most basic. There are a number of freeware and commercial programs that support more features such as simultaneous defragment of multiple drives and scheduled defragging to ensure that your system stays defragmented. Paid solutions are often better and are ideal for businesses and power home users that want to maximize the performance of their system. Diskeeper is one of the most popular and has a free trial available on their website so you can give it a test run.
Most users should be contented with the default defragging tool that comes with Windows. But if you are tired of running the defragging tool every now and then, it is better to get a paid solution so you can concentrate on more important things while the program takes care of the maintenance for you.