With every advancement that makes its way into our daily life we tend to become more and more dependent on the new technology. Since the evolution of the cell phone most people can’t remember the last time they had to use a pay phone, for that matter most people today probably wouldn’t even recognize what a pay phone looked like. The same could be said for cassette players, typewriters, VHS tapes and any number of items that have been replaced by more practical and efficient products.
While many items from our past have become obsolete there are several things that we use today that only require minimal maintenance to remain relevant to our daily life. By keeping things in proper working order we can avoid the costly prospect of having to shell out money for repairs or replacements.
One such item is our computers. Of course our computers have gone through a transition over the past several decades, what was once a cumbersome unit has become an easy to carry laptop capable of the same functions. At its current stage we can be assured these computers remain a convenience so long as we maintain their health and keep them in optimal condition.
This may sound easy enough but many people have adopted a disposable mindset in which the idea of taking care of their possessions has never fully been grasped. This attitude can be particularly dangerous when it comes to their computer as many people store important files, pictures and documents on their hard drive and if they are lost there is no replacing them.
The truth is the reality of this happening is almost guaranteed if precautions are not taken. This is because your hard drive is vulnerable to a host of potentially devastating problems that could end your computer’s life. Perhaps the most damaging is the computer disease known as fragmentation.
Computer fragmentation is a disease that directly attacks your hard drive and over time slows its operability and eventually causes it to crash. This is can all be attributed to the manner in which your hard drive saves and stores files.
As part of your hard drive’s design files are saved in a contiguous manner meaning whenever a files is saved it is placed directly behind the last file saved and so on. As a saved file is recalled and modified the size of the file is changed and it will no longer fit in the original space that it was saved. To accommodate the new file the hard drive cuts the excess information and saves that data in the next available space, this is now a fragmented file.
That may not sound so bad at first but over time a single file can be fragmented into thousands of pieces and it is important to remember every time you turn your computer on your hard drive is busy creating temporary files that are prone to the same fragmentation. When these fragmented files begin to mount the speed of the computer begins to suffer. This is because the hard drive is forced to search for all the pieces of a file whenever it’s requested and this typically results in those lengthy delays where you’re just staring at a screen praying for a response.
There are plenty of signs that your computer will give you that indicates fragmentation has become a problem. If it’s taking you a long time to boot up your system, if you’re experiencing difficulty loading pages and applications, if your going through delays accessing and sending emails or if your Internet browsing has become sluggish then chances are you need to address your hard drive’s fragmentation problem.
To do this only requires the installation of defragmentation software. By installing defrag on your computer you can effectively clean the hard drive of these deadly files because the software will repair those files that have been damaged by the disease. Defrag will piece together the fragmented files and save them in one space on the hard drive, making them easier to locate and thus improving the speed in which the computer performs.
As an added feature, defragmentation software will continue to work once it has been installed; ensuring fragmented files don’t reappear and cause the same dangers that were just eliminated.
It’s true that the advancement of certain products have made plenty of our old possessions obsolete. We all likely have that one mixed tape that had those bleeding love songs or that VHS tape that featured an embarrassing performance in a third grade play. Fortunately with the new technology that replaced those items came a way to transfer the media onto the new platform and save the moment. When it comes to our computers the only thing necessary to keep our information protected is the installation of defragmentation software and this will protect the computer from ever becoming obsolete.
