Imagine you have a filing cabinet with all your documents and papers in it, but it is a total mess. You have papers thrown everywhere and folders that are almost about to explode full of junk. If you would try to find something that you are looking for, do you think you would have trouble finding it? Of course! Not to mention the amount of time it would take too.But if you would have your filing cabinet neat and tidy, arranged all in a nice row, you could find what you are looking for almost instantly! This is in a way, how it works with your everyday computer.
As you use your computer, your files will begin to become fragmented. In general this will cause your computer to become laggy and very slow to respond. Defragmenting will generally improve the system performance.
Some applications may rely on multiple files in order to run, but if those files are scattered to either ends of the hard drive, your computer will have more work to do and take more time to do the task required. Your drive will be swifter if all the files are in one place, not scattered to separate ends of the drive.
Defragmenting organizes your files so that they are non-contiguous. By not defragmenting your hard drive regularly, your files are in fragments of data. Fragmentation makes your hard disk do a huge load of extra work that can slow down your computer. Disk Defragmenting rearranges fragmented data so your hard disk can work more efficiently and will leave your free hard disk space in one big portion. The new files that will be saved will be well organized and in a tidy manner.
Regular defragmenting may also help to increase the overall hard disks life-span. Not defragmenting regularly may put extra strain on the hard disk by having to do extra effort to find file fragments. This can also cause computer crashes, besides slowing down your system.
Some may report that defragmenting too often will stress out the drive and thus reduce its life-span. If defragmented regularly, the less time it will take and the less stress it will have on the drive. It is recommended to defragment your drive regularly, plus as soon as you get your hands on a new computer, as it will maintain your computers performance.
For those that do not know how to defragment on a Windows based computer, simply navigate to 'My Computer' or 'Computer' then right click and select 'Properties'. Up the top select the 'Tools' tab then under 'Defragmentation' select 'Defragment Now...’ Refer to the picture below for any further help.
NOTE: The first time you do this, it will take a while since it has got a massive load to defragment. Just be patient and happy Defragmenting!
