In the world of business, discovering a competitive edge can be the difference between success and failure. With the ever growing dependence on technology and speed in the workplace an often overlooked area providing that edge is in sustaining the health of a business’s computer network.
A main component of that health lies in the computer’s ability to complete tasks in an efficient and timely manner. For most people, the speed at which a computer operates is rarely taken into consideration. We have been convinced that, with age, our computer’s reliability will lessen and there is little we can do to reverse the course. When we finally become too tired of waiting for our computer to load applications, check email, or browse the internet we become resigned to the fact it is time to replace the hard drive
While that solution, albeit unnecessary, may be acceptable for an individual computer owner the same is not true for a business. It’s simply not sensible for a business to replace their network each time they experience a slowdown, especially when there is a practical solution to the problem.
Slow computer performance is more often than not contributed to fragmentation. Considered a computer disease, left untreated fragmentation will only continue to cause delays in a computer’s ability to complete tasks until finally resulting in the crash of the hard drive. Fortunately, a business doesn’t have to worry about this potentially catastrophic occurrence when they install defragmentation software on their computer network.
It is important to understand that that there is little defense, outside of defragmentation software, when it comes to protecting a computer’s hard drive from the dangers of fragmented files. Unlike a computer virus or excessive spam mail, fragmentation doesn’t come from an outside source; it’s simply a byproduct of how a computer saves files.
Every time your computer saves files, even temporary files, they are stored in a contiguous manner inside a block of space. At first this works fine because each file is composed of a single unit of information but over time this changes. Any time we make modifications, delete or add information to an existing file we further perpetuate fragmentation. This is because an existing file that has changes made will no longer fit inside the original space in which it was saved. The hard drive is forced to cut the excess information from a file and store it in another free space on the hard drive. When you try to retrieve that file later it takes your computer longer because it has to find all the pieces that comprise the single file.
This may not sound that dramatic at first but when you look at the effects over time the slowdown becomes nothing short of unbearable. Much like any other disease, when fragmentation is ignored the problems begin to compound. For a business that relies on their computer network system to deliver timely information to clients and customers or to make updates to their system the delays caused by fragmentation can drastically damage their bottom line.
By installing defragmentation software the issues of fragmented files can be resolved. Defrag software cleans a hard drive of fragmented files and continues to ensure every file remains a single unit rather than scattered bits of information. This is done by creating larger blocks of space for files and ensuring that when changes are made to those files they remain a single unit.
The effect defragmentation software has on a computer’s speed is instantly noticeable. Because it essentially returns your computer’s response time back to its original state the days of waiting for files to be retrieved or applications to be loaded become a thing of the past.
