What is Defragmentation and How to Do It?

Defragmentation

One of the important computer maintenance steps is Defragmentation and it is also the most neglected. Either because you don’t know about its usefulness or simply don’t know how to do it. And if you are not bothered, then probably you are wasting your time reading this!

What is Defragmentation?

Let’s say you have stored a movie file (.avi) in a folder on your root drive (usually C:). For all practical purposes, the file is stored in one and only one location (C:\folder\movie.avi) unless you have a copy of it somewhere else. But on the surface of the hard-disk, the file isn’t stored contiguously at one location. Instead bits of it are spread over the space in the hard-disk. This is because a hard-disk has to store many files and this is an easier way to store rather than storing everything together. So the files are fragmented.

But there is a drawback to this method of storage. Whenever you will access the above movie file, the system will have to find every pieces of the scattered file before presenting it to you. That can slow the process drastically depending on the size and fragmentation of the file. So the obvious thing to do is defragment!

Defragmentation is a process in which fragmented bits of all the files in the drive are brought together (made contiguous) so that the access speed increases, thereby increasing the overall performance of the system. Simple!

That’s all there is to defragmentation!

How to Defrag your Computer?

Here’s the easiest and quickest way:

Start -> Accessories -> System Tools -> Disk Defragmentor

Or simply type dfrgui.exe in the Run window. Select a drive and start the process.

Defraggler

But default windows applications are rarely that great and lack variety, features and vision as well! So get yourself Defraggler, a nice little tool which does the job pretty well. The great thing about it is that you can select individual files to defrag which is a great new feature lacking previously.

Ok, I will do it. But How Long Will It Take?

Well, it depends. Larger the hard-drive, more is the time required. The best time to do it is when you have nothing else to do with your computer and can stay away from it for 2-3 hours. With the above tool that I mentioned, you can select only part of your drive to do a quick defrag. So time should not be a factor now!

Great! How Frequently Should I Defrag?

How much is your computer usage? If you can’t leave your PC for even a minute, then you should think of defragging twice a month at the very least. But if you don’t use your computer that much and just hope that everything remains fine with your PC, then you should defrag once in a span of 2-3 months. That should keep your computer healthy!

Conclusion

There are some thoughts that suggest Defragmentation is not necessary but that is really for you to decide. As for me, it isn’t very taxing and should be done once in a while.

Have fun defragging!