In recent years, the average computer user continually uses their machine for more complicated tasks. Things like photo, video and music editing, which even a few short years ago were limited to expensive high-end computers, are now commonly done on average family PCs. Because these activities are CPU intensive, the average computer user has become more interested in getting the best performance out of their PC. One of the easiest ways to increase performance is to regularly defrag the hard drive.
The computer’s hard drive works by braking files into small pieces that are stored in many different physical places on the drive. A large file may be broken into thousands of discrete parts that are written throughout the drive. Over time, files can become more “fragmented” this is, the pieces become spread further apart on the disk. Because the drive head must physically move to access all the different parts of the file, a heavily fragmented disk can noticeably decrease a PCs performance.
Regularly defragging the hard drive is a simple way to increase computer performance without resorting to expensive hardware upgrades. The defragging process simply moves all the heavily fragmented parts of a file back together on a continuous section of the drive. The Windows operating system has a built in disk defragmenter, and any user will benefit from running the defragmenter regularly.
Users who regularly use their PCs for video and audio editing and other heavy hard drive read/write activities can also benefit from a third party solution like Executive Software Diskkeeper, which is not only faster at defragging then the Windows defragmenter, but has options to constantly monitor drives for fragmentation. In either case, any PC user, from the average family to the serious Video Editor, will benefit from regular defragging of the hard drive.
Last 5 posts in Computers/Web
- How To Host Your Website - November 3rd, 2006
- How To Transfer a Domain to a New Registrar - November 3rd, 2006
- Protecting Yourself from Adware - November 3rd, 2006
- Choosing a Different Web Browser - November 3rd, 2006
- Protecting Your PC From Viruses - November 3rd, 2006
0 Responses to “Defragmenting Your Hard Drive”