Defrag Your Computer

When a file is saved to your computer, it may automatically put parts of the file in different areas of your hard drive, depending on where it has room. This tends to slow down recovery of the file when you open it.  "Defrag" is short for defragment, the process of putting parts of files you have saved in a contiguous place on your hard drive.

To understand how a file can get fragmented on a computer, you need to know a little about how files are stored. A hard drive is divided into segments. When you save files, your computer looks for free segments to copy your information to. These segments may or may not be next to each other. Therefore, the files become fragmented.

Additionally, when you delete files from your computer you free up segments that are located in various places on the drive. These free segments are later used when you save different files furthering the fragmentation.

How To Go About Defragging Your Hard Drive!

You will need to use a software package to defragment your hard drive. A program called "Disk Defragmenter" is included with the Windows operating system. In Windows XP you can find this program by pointing to the Start button, choosing Programs, then Accessories, then System Tools.

When you start up a disk-defragging program, the first step it performs is to analyze your hard drive. For example, your drive may be only 7 percent fragmented. You might be advised that defragging is not necessary. Of course, you could override the suggestion, click the "defragment" button, and do it any way. When the defragging process has begun, all you need to do is sit back and wait because it can take quite some time for the process to be completed. The program will go through your entire hard drive, look for fragmented files and move them into contiguous segments. Many defragging programs have graphic displays showing you a color-coded diagram of the defragging status.