How to Defragment your Hard Drive and External Hard Drive

If your new computer appears to be a bit slower of late then perhaps, you might need to perform what is known as "hard drive defragmentation"

When you first purchase a computer you probably notice that it runs much better compared to a few month later on. In some cases that has to do with the general depreciation nature of hardware or outdated software but, there might be another cause that is within our control and reach.

• You need to defragment your hard drive on a regular basis.

Why is it important for you to defragment your hard drives on a regular basis? It’s because over time, daily computer usage like downloading and installing programs, creating, saving and deleting files eventually starts to clog your system down. Defragmenting your internal and external hard drives may help speed up your computer performance

 How to Defragment your Hard Drive

Concept

The concept behind fragmentation, a phenomenon that only seems to occur on FAT16, FAT32, and NTFS partitions is one that involves certain key files being scattered about the hard drive over time. After a while, it becomes nearly impossible to actually use the computer because the files are in such a state of disarray.

Execution

The files can be returned to their proper condition by running a program that will actually move them to right location. This process is known as defragmentation and depending on the extent of the damage it can take several hours. You will need to make sure you either have a lot of time on your hands before you begin, or that you do it just before you go to bed.

        How to defragment your hard drive

Applications

The defragmentation process can be achieved with a few different applications. One such application would be the defragmentation software that comes with Microsoft Windows by default.

More on how to fix slow computers here

In addition to that you could purchase Diskeeper which happens to be the full version of the software that already ships with Windows.

Auslogics defragmenter is also an option and it is available as a free download. Follow the steps below to defragment:

• Windows Vista/7: Click Start, type: Defragmenter, follow instructions.
• Windows 2k/XP: Click Start, Programs/All Programs » Accessories » System Tools, Disk Defragmenter

 Conclusion - How to Defragment your Hard Drive

No matter how you choose to go about it, defragmentation is very important and it will keep your machine running in pristine condition, ensuring that you can access all of your important files right when you need them. If that doesn't sound like a good idea, we don't know what does.

Take not that defragmentation only applies to Windows machines running NT or greater. This does not apply to Windows 3.1 as defragmentation was instead handled by the MS DOS operating system and does not need to be performed often. Also note that the LINUX and UNIX operating systems do not need to be defragmented at any time.

This will of course include both Ubuntu and Mac OSX which can be an added bonus but also comes with its own set of problems. This could also be said to range from EXT2, EXT3, Journalized, and other UNIX file systems. Keep this in mind, and if you have a Windows based Operating System, keep defragmenting!

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