For many of us out there the “honeymoon period” of enjoying the speed of our new computer is all too brief. Before we ever realize how nice it is to enjoy the rapid response in which our computer delivers information, we become bogged down in its delays. With each passing day the memories of how fast our computer once performed fade and we become resigned to life with a sluggish computer.
While many just chalk this slow computer performance up to the natural lifecycle of the hard drive the truth is we don’t have to settle for the frustrations that develop over time. As with most problems related to a computer, there is a solution.
The solution for most slow computer performance problems typically comes from defragmenting your hard drive. If that sounds too complicating or expensive don’t worry, it’s as simple as heading to your local computer retailer and asking for defrag software.
As easy as the solution is, it’s extremely important that you act quickly when you begin to notice the speed of your computer decline. A fragmented hard drive is designated as a computer disease, like any disease it can spread, and when left untreated it will ultimately result in the crashing of your hard drive. It’s that simple.
Chances are your hard drive is already experiencing a slowdown due to fragmented files. This is because fragmentation is a natural process that occurs on computers. When you save a file, check email, browse the web or any number of activities that you use your computer for the hard drive creates space for in which those files are saved. Each of those files are saved in a contiguous series and thus present a problem when they are opened and modified or deleted.
When you open an existing file, make additions, and save the changes your file becomes fragmented. This is because when you save the file it can no longer fit in the same space that it once occupied and your hard drive is forced to cut the additions and save it in another space. The next time you try to open that file you experience a delay because your computer is forced to search for all the pieces that make up that file.
If it was only one file that was fragmented you would probably never notice the slowdown on your computer but the truth is there are thousands of files on your computer that you might be unaware of that are also fragmented. When you make changes to a fragmented file the problem just becomes greater as the hard drive is forced to dissect the data once again and store the extensions in another space. This will eventually lead to your computer slowing to a crawl and ultimately crashing.
By defragmenting your hard drive the issues related to fragmented files and slow computer performance are alleviated. Defrag software will clean your hard drive of fragmented files and create larger blocks of space to save files in order to prevent future fragmentation. When cleaning your hard drive of fragmented files the software will piece together all that data that belongs to a single file and save it in one unit. The next time you open that file the hard drive no longer has to search for the multiple pieces of information that comprise that file because its been saved as a single unit.
Even after you make changes to a file, defrag software works to keep the information together when its saved, thus preventing the fragmentation process from beginning again.
So if your experiencing a slowdown on your computer and you’re uncertain about what course of action to take, the best thing you can do is install defrag software. Just be sure to take the action before it’s too late because you don’t want to be lamenting the fact that you could have saved your computer had you just spent a few dollars protecting it from fragmented files.
