For most people the level of their patience is contingent upon the situation at hand. We know that if the situation is something that we might not have to encounter again or that takes place infrequently we can display a greater level of tolerance. In addition, if the situation is something we already know will take time then the likelihood of becoming frustrated drops. We know we only have to go to the DMV every few years so the long wait really isn’t that big of a deal, shopping during Christmas can be trying but we know it’s once a year, and getting on the road during rush hour, as painful as that is, comes with the understanding that we could be in the car for awhile.
What tests our patience is when we come across situations that are supposed to be relatively quick yet become a direct assault on our personal serenity. We can go crazy while we wait on the phone to talk to a representative about an error on a bill, pull our hair out as we stand in line at the only open checkout at the grocery store and nearly lose our mind as we wait for the electricity to return after a power outage.
While those examples are all experiences that typically try our patience they really don’t compare to the pain inflicted by a slow computer. If there’s anything in our life that’s supposed to be reliable and efficient it’s our computer and when we stare at a screen for more than a few seconds as a page loads it’s enough to drive us mad. The really crazy thing about this test on our sanity is that we have contributed to our own discomfort.
Just like anything else computers need to be maintained if they are going to work at a high level. For many people the idea of maintaining a computer consists of installing virus protection and maybe a spam blocker but the truth is this does not guarantee your computer’s health. There are other dangers that your computer faces and if left unchecked you’ll find that a strain on your patience is the least of your problems.
One such danger is the computer disease known as fragmentation. While many people may not know about this disease, every time they turn their unprotected computer on they are subjecting their hard drive to its potentially devastating effects.
In essence fragmentation is a disease that is born on a hard drive and if it’s not remedied it will progress to a point where your computer crashes.
Fragmentation is directly related to the process in which files are saved and stored on the hard drive and its most noticeable symptom is a slowdown in your computer’s performance. This is because a hard drive saves files in a contiguous manner, meaning each time a file is saved it is placed directly behind the last file saved, leaving no space between the two. This may seem harmless but troubles quickly mount as those files are modified and saved. As this occurs the hard drive can no longer fit the file in its original space so it is forced to cut the additional info and store it in the next available space; this is now a fragmented file.
There is no limit to how many pieces a single file can fragmented into and when we understand how many files actually exist on our hard drive the problem becomes a little more apparent. Every time we turn on our computer the hard drive is busy saving files and this can quickly cause chaos as existing files are modified and thus fragmented. The hard drive becomes a field of scattered pieces of files and this adversely affects the speed of the computer. Whenever we try to retrieve a fragmented file the hard drive is forced to search for all the pieces that comprise that file and we are forced to wait and stare at that little hourglass that seems to promise a result soon.
These fragmented files eventually choke the life out of the hard drive, making its function of retrieving files nearly impossible and as the work becomes more difficult the system just crashes, resulting in the loss of all the content that existed on the computer.
Fortunately for computer owners it’s easy to recognize when their hard drive is dealing with an excess of fragmented files. The symptoms are often tied to a longer than normal wait for the computer to boot up, delays in retrieving files and loading pages, difficulty accessing and sending emails and a slowdown in Internet browsing.
If you recognize these traits then it’s imperative that you take the steps to deal with the disease and this process is as simple as stopping by your local computer retailer and picking up defragmentation software.
Defragmentation software will reverse the damage caused by fragmentation and restore your computer’s speed to its original state. Once installed defrag will scan the hard drive and piece together fragmented files and save them in one space. The great thing about defrag software is once it has been installed there is nothing else that needs to be done because it continues to monitor the hard drive to ensure files don’t become fragmented in the future.
With files saved as a single unit and in one place the hard drive no longer has to exert as much effort retrieving requests, this means you no longer have to worry about your patience being tested each time you turn your computer on.
