Most of us probably remember learning the Golden Rule at some point of our childhood, the idea that we should treat others as we would like them to treat us. While the axiom is often related to how we treat each other the same philosophy should be applied to the way we treat the possessions that we have come to rely on in everyday life.
Many of us already do this; we want our car to run properly so we make sure we take it in for scheduled tune-ups, we want to wear clean clothes so we make certain to place them in the washer once they have been worn, we brush our teeth each day so that we may prevent disease and decay, the list is endless.
Of course these are all a means to keeping the items in their best shape but ultimately we want them in their best condition for our own convenience. Anybody who has ever had a car fail to start because they failed to keep it in good shape can attest to that.
While we do a pretty good job of taking care of our possessions as a whole, there are particular items that still seem to fall victim to neglect. One of these items is our computer and in a paradoxical twist of fate they are one of those things that we depend upon most.
There are several things that can damage our computer and if we don’t take the action to avoid such troubles then we will ultimately have the frustrating reality of a system that doesn’t perform up to speed.
We will quickly be faced with reliability problems if we ignore the health of our computers and if we continue to disregard the evident issues then the end result will be a computer crash that could cost us everything that has been saved on the hard drive.
The dangers posed to a computer go much deeper than just viruses. One such danger is the computer disease known as fragmentation. This disease attacks the computer’s hard drive and continues to get worse the longer it’s left untreated.
Fragmentation occurs naturally on the computer’s hard drive due to the nature of its design. The hard drive values space more than anything else and because of this any time a file is saved it is placed directly behind the last file saved. This method proves hazardous when a saved file is recalled and modified. When the user tries to resave that modified file it will no longer fit in the original space. The hard drive’s solution is to cut the new file and save the additional information in the next available space.
Over time a single file can be fragmented into thousands of pieces, leaving the hard drive littered with this deadly disease. Because the hard drive has countless files saved on it the number of fragmented pieces is countless. This disease is what causes the computer to slow because whenever a file is recalled the hard drive is forced to search for all the pieces that comprise that one file. That added burden of searching can quickly burn the hard drive out and lead to a crash.
There are obvious signs that a hard drive has become infested with fragmented files. The most obvious sign is a slowdown in the computer’s performance. This slowdown will cause delays in booting up the computer, loading pages and applications, accessing and sending emails and browsing the Internet. Because all of these functions entail files that are constantly being modified they are prone to a massive amount of fragmentation.
This is why it is so important to embrace the philosophy of preventative measures when it comes to protecting your computer. Fortunately it only takes the installation of defragmentation software to keep your computer safe from the dangers of fragmentation.
Once defrag has been installed it will scan the hard drive for the fragmented files and instantly repair the damaged files and save them as a single unit. This simple act will not only mend the files but dramatically increase the speed of the computer as well. This is because the hard drive won’t have to search for pieces of a file but can rather locate the entire file in one space.
As a result the computer’s health is restored and in turn its lifespan is lengthened by years.
Defrag will not only clean the hard drive but will continue to monitor the files to ensure fragmentation doesn’t return. Taking the proactive approach when it comes to protecting your computer from fragmentation is the first step in knowing that when you turn your computer on it will be capable of meeting all the expectations you have.
