DISK DEFRAGMENTER
Perhaps you have seen this system tool wandering around your home PC, maybe you've heard of it.
What is "disk fragmentation"?
Imagine you are trying to read a book. The book has several chapters, all of which are located in different rooms of your house. Chapter 1 is under your bed, chapter 2 is under the bathroom sink, 3 is in the freezer, 4 is hidden under dirty clothes in the hamper and 5 is on a table in the dining room. It will be very difficult to read this book in a timely manner if you have to find each bit of it. Files on your computer's hard disk (or hard drive) are written in a similar manner. That game you want to play isn't written on the disk in one continuous manner, it's all over the place. This is disk fragmentation.
Disk fragmentation makes your computer run slower, it has to find everything and that takes more time.
Why is the disk fragmented?
Over time, files are moved and deleted on your computer, this opens up free space in different spots on the disk. The computer writes new files where ever it can find free space, whether or not is is all together. Thus, it gets quite hectic on the disk.
What is "disk defragmenter"?
DD is a system tool on Windows Operating Systems (other OS have similar tools as well and some are available for download). This tool will rearrange the data on the hard disk in a continuous way.
Where is this thing?
Double click on the "My Computer" icon, if you have one, or go to "Start" then click on "My Computer". In My Computer you will see some drives and devices and such. What you need to look for are the ones labeled "Local Disk" followed by a letter like "C". These are hard drives. Right click on them and select "Properties". Under the "Tools" tab click on "Defragment Now".
How do I use it?
It has two parts, "Analyze" and "Defragment". Click "Analyze" first. This will create a visual representation of how messed up and crazy your drive is. Once finished, it will tell you whether or not defragmenting is necessary (it most likely will be).
When should i do this?
-Try to make time to do this once a month, at least.
-Do it before loading new programs, it will make the program load faster and execute/ run faster.
It is best to do this at a time when your computer is not busy. Do it right before you go to bed, as this takes a long time and it uses a lot of your computer's resources. Do not have any programs up while defragging, it will make the process even slower.
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