Slow Computer? Here’s a Tip…Pt.3: Defrag

Defragging your PC is one of the most important things you can do to ensure high PC performance. I’m not gonna sit here and tell you, “You MUST keep your PC clean” or “You MUST maintain and upkeep your PC.” A PC is a machine and it should work for you, not the other way around. All these tips that I give you should be performed only if you want to increase performance, don’t think of it like a chore. Maybe you can run a defrag once every few months or so, don’t sweat it. Just to explain this in a non techy way, defragging your hard drive removes file fragments on your drive that occur naturally with PC use. Defragmenting, puts these fragmented files back in order so that the drive can call up data faster. Think of your computer as a bunch of alphabet blocks. The more you use your PC, the more those alphabet blocks get rearranged making them fragmented and hard to locate individually. Defragging puts these blocks back in alphabetical order, removing the fragments and making them easier and quicker to find. I’ve explained the theory, now, how do you do it.

1. Click ‘Start’, type in defragment, and click on ‘Disk Defragmenter.’ Once you’ve opened the Windows 7 Disk Defragmenter you need to check your disks first in order to see whether they need defragmentation or not.

2. In order to determine the fragmentation state, you select one or more disks and analyze them (click the ‘Analyze Disk’ button).

3. When the disk analysis is complete, Disk defragmenter will display the disk fragmentation percentage for each disk (see the ‘Last Run’ column of the Disk Defragmenter window). If any of your disks are fragmented more than 8% it’s recommended that you start the defragmentation process.

In order to defragment your hard disks, simply select the drives and push the ‘Defragment Disk’ button. The process may take a long time, depending on how large and fragmented your drives are.

4. In order to save you some time, you can schedule the defragmentation process using the scheduler. Click on the ‘Configure schedule’ button to start the disk defrag daily, weekly or monthly, on a week day and time of your choice.

5. Of course, you need to select the disk drives you wish to defragment, and your pretty much done.

You can use your computer while defragmenting your drives but it will probably be pretty slow so I’d say to defrag right before bed or when you know your PC will be idle. A lot of people say that Windows Defrag sucks, they also say that Defraggler is better. Defraggler is an alternative defrag software that gives you some more options. If your tech savvy or up for the challenge, check out Defraggler, install it and  see if it helps. I used it all the time.