subject: Learn How To Defrag Your Hard Drive For Improved Computer Performance [print this page] If your computers performance is slowing down it could be caused by one or a number of factors. These can include a lack of memory and disk space, or virus infections. There are different solutions to these problems however, there is one way you can help to improve your computers performance and that is by defragmenting. What defragmenting does is reassemble and rearrange the data and files of your hard drive in order for your computer to work more effectively. It is recommended by computer experts that you should defrag your hard disk on a monthly basis.
To defrag a computer is a straight forward process. Follow these steps to find out how:
Step 1
Begin by clicking the Start button, then Control Panel, System and Maintenance. In the Admin tools section select the command to Defragment Your Hard Drive.
Step 2
This will bring up the Disk Defragmenter window onto the screen. Towards the bottom right hand side of the box you will see the Defragment now button. Click this button.
Step 3
After you click the Defragment now button another information box will appear on your screen. This box will provide a list of the drives that you can defrag. Tick each drive that you want to defrag and then press the OK button to start the defragmentation process. At the start you may get a message box stating that the selected drives are currently being defragmented and how long the process is likely to take. You can determine how long this is likely to take by monitoring the progress bar.
Step 4
Depending on the size of your hard disk defragmentation could take a few minutes or well over an hour to complete. When the process has completed the Defragmenter window will inform you that your disk drive has been fully defragmented. When you see this message you can close the window. You should now find that the performance of your computer will have improved.
As it is a prudent decision to defragment your computer on a regular basis you can set up schedule for a process to run at a particular time each month. You can do this by going back to the Disk Defragmenter window and ticking the Run on a schedule. This will come up with a default date and time however, you can change the schedule by clicking on the Modify Schedule button and change the date, day and time to suit you.
Tip: If the defragmentation takes a few hours you may want to set the schedule to run the process when you are not using the computer for example, late at night.
