How to Defrag a Computer

Have you ever noticed your computer reducing its functioning speed over time? This is due to the files and data to be accessed being scattered on different portions on the hard disk in an unorganized manner. If you want to completely understand why and how to defrag a computer, you first need to know the fundamental working of how data is stored on the computer's hard drive. The data storage on the hard disk can be termed as 'fragmentation'.

What is Fragmentation?
Fragmentation is an automatic process that is initiated by the computer, when we save a particular file on the hard drive. When we save a file or folder on the hard drive, the computer distributes and stores parts of the file into different sectors, known as 'clusters' in computing language. Due to this unorganized manner of saving data in unspecified different clusters, the movable arm situated on the hard drive takes a while, to search for appropriate data related to one specific file. And this is how the processing and file retrieval in your PC slows down. You need to note that fragmentation happens mainly when there is a huge amount of data already present on the hard disk. When we save a file on a substantially full disk, parts of the data are stored in the leftover clusters which may not be consecutive. When we delete or uninstall a file, the clusters are emptied, which are then free to store the data parts of a different file. In case of an empty hard drive, the data is saved in a sequential pattern, which is why the data retrieval process is fast.

What is Defragmentation?
A shorter term for defragmentation is 'defrag'. Defragmenting computers is just the opposite of the fragmentation process. It can be initiated manually by a user, or scheduled to run at a certain point of time. For example, in PCs having Windows Vista operating system, defrag is set to run by default once a week. In simple terms, defragmentation is a procedure wherein the spread out parts of a file are arranged in a proper order and in a sequential manner on the hard disk. Orderly arranged data can be accessed easily, and thus leads to faster computer performance. Another advantage of timely data defragmentation is that it helps to maintain the condition of the hard drive. By defragmenting your PC on a periodic basis, there would be no need for the movable hard disk arm to find data in different sections more frequently, which will keep the disk in good condition.

How to Defrag a Computer Hard Drive?
Learning how to defrag computers is a very easy task. Simply click on the 'Start' button, select accessories from the 'All Programs' section, click on 'Accessories', and finally the 'Disk Defragmenter' option. A window will pop up which displays the options if you would like to schedule a defrag session or do it right away. Select the 'defragment now' option, and then choose which drives you want to defragment. After doing so, the process starts.

If you want to defragment computers another way, click on 'Start', select 'Run', type 'cmd', and press 'Enter'. A command prompt window will be displayed; wherein you need to type 'defrag', give a space, type the name of drive which is to be defragmented, and then a colon, and press the 'Enter' button. For instance, 'defrag c:' and 'Enter'. Doing so will start the defragmentation process of that particular drive.

This was a simple explanation on how to defrag a computer. The bottom line is that, if you defragment your computer once a week, the processing in your PC will certainly be faster.