'Computer Defrag'De-fragmenting your computer's hard drive is an important step in maintaining good computer performance and health. It will reduce the wear and tear on your hard drive thus prolonging its life span and can be accomplished in just a few easy steps.How do your computer files become fragmented?When a file is added or saved to your hard drive, it will probably be split into pieces and placed in various locations on the disk. In fact, its possible the end piece of a file may be saved to a location in front of the beginning piece of the file.This happens over and over with many files and causes fragmentation. When a request is received by the hard drive to open a fragmented file it has to go to all these different locations to retrieve it, which of course is not very efficient. 'Defragging' will not necessarily place the file in one location, but it will place the first part of the file first, the middle part next, and the last part of the file after the middle part. This allows the drive to retrieve the file more quickly and efficiently. How often should you defrag your hard drive?The answer really depends on how much you use your computer. If you use your computer every day then once every week or two should be fine. If your computer sits for days without being used then once a month is plenty.Do you 'defrag' all computers the same way?Windows XP and Windows 2000 come with basically the same de-fragmentation software (Windows ME, and earlier operating systems', defragmenters function a little differently). The image below is the one on my Windows XP computer. Before you start defragging your drive, delete your temporary Internet files and empty your Recycle Bin. This frees up hard drive space and prevents unnecessary de-fragmenting.To open the defragmenting utility, click on, Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Disk Defragmenter.  How long will the defragmentation process take?Depending on how long it has been since your computer's drive was last defragmented, this process could take between 10 minutes and 2 hours. However, you should be able to continue working. A message will pop-up telling you when the process is complete.If you have further computer needs,
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