Free Tip #2: Defrag Your PC's Hard Drive Every Month
This page applies to Windows PCs. MACs have fewer fragmentation issues and newer MACs clean up after themselves.
Linux and Unix don't fragment data.
Defragging: A Very Simple Explanation
Over time, data becomes increasingly disorganized on your hard drive. The "disorganization" is called
fragmentation because pieces of files (documents, songs, spreadsheets) get scattered all over your hard drive. As your hard drive becomes more disorganized, your computer slows down and your hard drive works harder.
The extra work will likely shorten your hard drive's life.
A Defragmentation program reorganizes the data on your hard drive to reduce or eliminate scatter. Reduced scatter allows reduces your hard drive's workload and increases overall computer performance.
If you'd like a more technical explanation of defragging, see
The Mechanics of Defragmentation below.
Is Defragging Really Necessary?
No. But it's strongly recommended. 15% - 20% of all hard drives fail in three years or less. The process of replacing a hard drive on someone's computer is
called disaster recovery with good reason. "Defragging" your hard drive will help keep your computer fast and your hard drive
healthy. Is it a guarantee against hard drive failure? No. But it's a painless activity. You do what you can.
How Often Should You Defrag?
Once a month will do for most people. Once a quarter if you don't use your computer a lot.
Why Don't Most People Defrag
Few people know about defragging. Most people who do erroneously see it as a royal pain because they defrag with the Microsoft Windows Defrag Utility that comes packaged with Windows. MS's Defrag takes hours to run (think overnight) and you can't really use your computer until the defrag is finished.
Good defrag software will complete its work in as little as 10 minutes.
Which Defrag Software Should You Use?
In case you missed our warning, the Windows defrag utility is slooooowwwww and does not do a better job than other programs.
You'll do much better using
Auslogics Disk Defrag (v 1.5.20) or some other 3rd party program. Norton Utilities Symantec, Kasperski AntiVirus and BitDefender Antivirus all have good defragging utilities.
Check
NoNags.com for more options.
How to Defrag with MS Windows XP (Instructions)
Defragging does not happen automatically. You have to start the process manually. The process has 2 steps: 1) test to see whether your hard drive needs to be defragged, and 2) run the process if necessary. You'll need Just a few mouse clicks to do the job.
1. Click "Start"
2. Click "Accessories"
3. Click "System Tool"
4. Click "Disk Defragmenter"
5. Click "Analyze"
6. If the computer tells you to defragment the disk,
and if you don't need to use your
machine for several hours, click "Defragment".
You don't have to defrag your drive at a specific moment because the computer says you should: you can do it at a later time. Once a month is probably adequate. Try it when your leaving work for the day.
How to Defrag with MS Windows Vista (Instructions)
You can schedule automatic defragging in Windows Vista, but there's now way to test whether defragging is necessary. If you're going to schedule defrag, set it up to run overnight beginning when you leave work. To defrag in Vista,
1. Click "Start"
2. Click "Help and Support"
3. Type "Defrag" in the help search box
4. Click "1. Improve performance by defragmenting your hard disk"
5. Follow the simple instructions.
The Mechanics Of Fragmentation (Optional)
Let's get Geeky.
Every time you save a file, your computer writes it to your hard drive. Your hard drive stores your files in
sectors - tiny physical storage areas on the disk that contain up to
512 bytes of data each. Every sector is numbered. The numbers start at the outer edge of the disk and move in. A 500GB disk has a little over 1 Billion sectors.
An average file won't fit in one sector. A small word document might fill 40 sectors; a 4 minute MP3 song might fill 235 sectors, and a small video might fill 3000.
| In a perfect world, the whole file is written on to your drive in contiguous sectors
that sit close to each other on the hard drive (see figure 1, below). |
|
Sometimes your PC scatters individual files into sectors all over your hard drive. We call this process fragmentation (figure 2).
|
 |
|
 |
| Unfragmented Disk |
|
Fragmented Disk |
Why is fragmentation bad? Because it creates a lot of unnecessary movement. A hard drive is basically a turntable with a circular disk and a laser reading eye. Both parts move at very high speeds: the turntable spins and the laser eye slides across the disk to read data. Less movement is better. More movement creates significant extra wear and decreases the computer's performance.
In figure 1 above, the drive spins to a single spot, reads the entire file "DEAR MOM" and rests. In figure 2 above, the drive must spin to 5 different spots to get all of "DE-A-R--M-OM". It works 5 times harder - and presumably takes 5 times longer to do the same job. All of that motion creates extra wear. Extra wear means premature disk failure.
Disk failure usually means a disaster for the user.
Defragmenation makes the disk in figure 2 look like the disk in figure 1.
Our example makes the process look simple: in fact, the process must sift through and rearrange billions of bytes in hundreds of thousands of files. In order to defrag, you need special software called defrag programs.
