Defragmentation
Think of your hard drive like a book shelf. When you first put the books on they are neatly arranged, maybe by size or by type. After a while as the books are taken down used and put back up, they are misplaced, forced into a smaller spot or just plain old relocated. This makes finding books difficult and it takes time.
Many times when your computer is slowing down and the hard drive is cranking away the files are fragmented. This means that your Word document that you have been working on isn't saved all together. Depending on the file-system the computer breaks all files into several chunks called blocks. Then when saving the file it looks for the next available space big enough for all or some of the blocks. If not all of the blocks fit then it looks for space somewhere else to place the remaining pieces. When your hard drive gets cluttered like this it takes time to find all the pieces of a file.
So what is one to do? How do you reorganize your hard drive so that all the pieces are put together nicely? Defragmentation.
Defragmentation is the reorganization of your hard drive. There are many programs that do it but not all are created equal. Microsoft Windows has a built in defragmentation program. The latest version in Windows 7 is getting better but some free and open source programs are better. The best one that I have used is called MyDefrag, formerly JKDefrag. I dont really know what it does that is so much better but it is. I've used a lot of different programs and this is the best, and its FREE! Free is always good.
So when your computer is starting to slow down think defrag before you throw it out the window. A monthly defrag session will keep your hard drive nice and organized. That way you will know if something else is wrong.
Many times when your computer is slowing down and the hard drive is cranking away the files are fragmented. This means that your Word document that you have been working on isn't saved all together. Depending on the file-system the computer breaks all files into several chunks called blocks. Then when saving the file it looks for the next available space big enough for all or some of the blocks. If not all of the blocks fit then it looks for space somewhere else to place the remaining pieces. When your hard drive gets cluttered like this it takes time to find all the pieces of a file.
So what is one to do? How do you reorganize your hard drive so that all the pieces are put together nicely? Defragmentation.
Defragmentation is the reorganization of your hard drive. There are many programs that do it but not all are created equal. Microsoft Windows has a built in defragmentation program. The latest version in Windows 7 is getting better but some free and open source programs are better. The best one that I have used is called MyDefrag, formerly JKDefrag. I dont really know what it does that is so much better but it is. I've used a lot of different programs and this is the best, and its FREE! Free is always good.
So when your computer is starting to slow down think defrag before you throw it out the window. A monthly defrag session will keep your hard drive nice and organized. That way you will know if something else is wrong.
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