Defragment Your Hard Drive for Faster Performance

Defrag your PC! If you're asking yourself, "What does defrag mean?", read more here!

If you’ve noticed a gradual decrease in your computer’s performance, there could be a number of reasons – but one of the most common is that the hard drive needs to be defragmented.
So what’s defragmenting, and why is it so important?

When you first install your operating system and programs on your hard disk, they are written to the disk, for the most part, in one contiguous block without any gaps. The exceptions are certain system files that must be stored in specific locations. Over time, as you create and then delete documents or uninstall programs, once-filled locations are left empty and you end up with files dotted all over the disk. Then it is harder for your computer to look for all those chunks which slows it down and can take a while for documents or programs to load. The defrag process tidies up your disk to put all those data blocks in a row again, resulting in faster performance and a happier computer.

Windows computers come with a defrag utility pre-installed. The way you access the utility will vary depending on what operating system you’re running. In Vista or earlier versions, open up a window in Windows Explorer and go to My Computer or Computer. Right-click the local disk volume that you want to defragment, and then click Properties. On the Tools tab, click Defragment Now and then click Defragment.

In Windows 7, you’ll access it by going to Computer > Properties > Performance Information and Tools > Advanced Tools > Open Disk Defragmenter. There, you can run the defragmentation (on multiple drives simultaneously in Windows 7, unlike the one-at-a-time of Vista and XP) or set up a defragmentation schedule. (Scheduling is also available in Vista.)

The process can take a while, particularly if you've got a lot of data on your hard drive, so you might want to schedule it to run during off hours. Just make sure that your computer is actually turned on at the time the defrag is scheduled to run. And one last word of caution: make sure you have all your important files backed up (whether it’s using a remote backup service, an external hard drive, or a CD) before you start the defragmenting process. There’s always a risk that something can go wrong while all that data is moving around, and you should have a backup just in case the unexpected happens.

Read this full article also on our home office blog, CMIT Solutions.