Why Do I Need to Defrag My Hard Drive

A number of people don't understand the meaning of defragmenting the hard drive, which leads to the fact that they don't bother to perform it. And their computers become slower and slower because they don't do it. They panic until their computer freeze up and die. A routine defragmentation of the computer is of vital importance to the high performance which is what most of people require.

Before we get to experience the defrag program, why not get to know how it works first?

Your file in the hard disk is saved in what we called "clusters". Every cluster has a fixed size of 512 bytes. When a file is to be saved in the hard disk, it takes up as many clusters as it needs. For example, if the file is 20 bytes, it would need one cluster that is 512 bytes. And if you have a file that is 520 bytes, it will takes up one cluster and another 8 bytes from another cluster. Then the other 504 bytes is left unused.

The file can also be chopped up into different chunks in the hard drive. And the cluster are nor always next to each other. Over time, the split files are scattered all over the hard disk. That is called fragmented files. The computer needs more time to find and load those fragmented files when there are too many in existence.

There is also another way to explain this course.

The hard disk in your computer is like your CD shelf. When you fist bought it, you place all your CDs on the shelf according to the artists' names, years of publication or styles. Sometime you may take out one CD and play it. It is easy to find the particular one you want because you have already arranged them in a special way you know well. However, you only have one shelf and there may be some shift between the CDs. You may need new ones and throw out old unused ones. Now you have free space for new ones but there are dotted all over the shelf. Therefore, the CDs are no longer placed in its original way. Maybe you will find one CD in another case.

Over time, it is complicated for you figure out which one is in which place. Then you need to clean this shelf and place them in the proper way. That is what happens to your computer.

Defragmentation is like the cleaning work in your computer. It might not simple create more space on your hard disk, but it makes those fragmented files into a complete one. Imagine that if one file is split into to pieces and placed in two different locations, it will take your computer twice much time as it needs to find them. No wonder how long will it take to find a larger file that have more fragments. Defragmenting process is helping you and your computer to save both the time and energy for other works.

Think about give your hard working computer an opportunity to experience fresh and quick working condition! Then you will find the whole course worth it.

Download Smashing Defrag to defragment your computer now!

Hannah may IT/Software Views