Hard Drive Maintenance

Files are often broken up and stored on various locations of the Hard Drive

. How does this happen? Original files are written and stored unbroken, but as they are expanded, the additional parts are saved on the next spot on the disk. As old files are deleted, gaps appear in the files on the disk. When another file is stored on the drive, it is broken into pieces and stored in the gaps left by the old files. Hard drive must skip around to connect all the file parts causing undue wear and tear on the individual parts of the hard drive. Defragmenting the hard drive corrects this problem. The exception to these problems are solid state drives which have no moving parts. These solid state drives have a limited number of times that may be read or written. It is foolish to waste these times while defragmenting the drives. Therefore it is never advisable to defragment a solid state drive.

The most important thing to do before defragmenting a hard drive is to clean a hard drive. There is no purpose to performing maintenance on files that will ultimately be deleted. Their eventual deletion will lead to gaps in the storage of data and fragmentation. Disk management or windows explorer are the most common ways to access the tools for defragmenting. Select the properties of the volume to be defragmented. On the general tab, there is a button for disk cleanup. After a quick inspection, the computer will present the user with a list of options of what can be removed from the hard drive or even compressed. After the user decides what actions should be taken, the user should select to perform the action. On some windows operating systems, other options will appear at this point for deleting old programs or restore points. Unless you are certain about what results these options will lead to, it is best to leave these options alone.

The second method is similar to the first but uses task scheduler to pick times when system resources are not in high demand.. The command cleanmgr.exe with the "/SAGESET:n" switch will open an option box where options may be selected. The "n" must be a number and is stored in the registry for later reference. The options that are selected are tied to that number. When the number is specified later, the command is run with the same options. The command "cleanmgr.eve /SAGERUN:n" is run to clean the disk with the previously specified options. The command may be run in real time or scheduled to run later. "cleanmgr.exe /?" shows all available options for the command.

Another option for the first method specified is to automate the process. Users will frequently forget to perform regular maintenance on their drives, so it is better to schedule the process to run without user interaction. The command "cleanmgr.exe /SAGESET:n" will open an option box where options may be selected muck like the first option. These options are stored in the registry and associated with the number used instead of "n." Later, "cleanmgr.eve /SAGERUN:n" is run later to clean the disk with the earlier specified options. It is possible to view all the switches by running "cleanmgr.exe /?" This command may be run in real time or used to schedule the task for a later time or on a regular basis.

When all this is completed, the hard drive is ready to be defragmented. Defragmenting even has more than one way to be performed. Either real time or through task scheduler are acceptable for the command defrag.exe. It comes with many switches where options may be specified. The properties of the drive has a much more user friendly method. The tools tab contains a "defragment now" button. A new window will appear where the drive may be analyzed and, if necessary, defragmented. The appearance varies by operating systems but, is available on all Windows operating systems. The computer should not be used while it is defragmenting. Use of the computer during this time may complicate the process and lead to further fragmentation. A regular routine of these simple programs will extend the lifespan of nearly and hard drive.

by: Christopher Keith

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