The Tech Library

Using Disk Defragmenter

This guide will tell you how you can take this easy step to help speed up your computer by defragging your hard drive. Defragging moves sectors of files so that they are contiguous so they are faster to load as the hard drive doesnt have to look as far when searching.

To run the Disk Defragmenter:

Click Start > All Programs > Accessories.

Under System Tools you will find Disk Defragmenter. Click this icon and you will now load the tool we will be using.

Once the tool loads you will see a list of all the hard drives you have in your system and also their total size and how much free space is remaining.

Now, select which partition you want to defragment. Sometimes it is best to do them all if you have more than 1 partition or hard drive installed on your system.

Now, once you have the hard drive highlighted, you will be able to see a defragment button to the lower of the screen. Click this and allow the tool to run.

You will also notice 2 bars with different colors on in the tool. The top bar is the analysis of the drive which shows you fragmented files in red, contiguous files in blue, system files in green and any free space you have remaining in white.

While the tool is running you will notice that the colors on the lower bar tend to move around and red lines/blocks turn blue. This is normal.

It is important that you dont switch off your computer while this tool is running or you risk damaging your hard drive or loosing important data stored on your hard drive.

Now, after a few minutes or longer, depending on the speed of your system, the tool will be complete. You will now be able to compare the upper bar to the lower bar to see the effects of the tool.

Exit the tool and enjoy your freshly defragmented hard drive. You should see a slight performance increase on this has been complete.

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� 2008 carsey. This article may not be reproduced, in part or in whole without the express permission of the author.