Defragmenting your hard drive

The reason defragmenting is necessary is that over time files stored on your computer become fragmented and disorganised. This makes it more difficult for your computer to open files quickly as it has to spend time finding all the pieces on your local hard drive. While some defragmentation is normal, if it gets really bad your computer’s performance will suffer.

Defragmenting your computer using Windows XP is easy to do and should be done once a month.

To defragment your computer:

1) Click on Start > Programs > Accessories >

2) Click on System Tools and then on Disk Defragmenter. Windows built in disk defragmenting program will open.

3) In order to work out whether your disk needs to be defragmented. Left click once on the hard disk that you would like to check and click Analyse.

4) If your hard drive needs to be defragmented you will be told that “you should defragment this volume”. Click Defragment to start the process. If you are told that your drive does not need to be defragmented, press Close and exit the program.

5) Defragmenting can take quite a while. The time it takes depends on the size of your hard drive and the number of files stored on it. In most cases defragmenting will take between 30 minutes and an hour.

6) If your computer has multiple hard drives you will need to repeat steps 1-4 for each drive.

Defragmenting your hard drive is easy but if Windows tells you that you don’t have enough free disk space or you find that your computer is still running slowly you may benefit from a new hard drive or a Gizmo Tune Me Up! service. To book a Gizmotech call 1300 275 449 – we can get your computer sorted out.