Computers require routine maintenance or they will start to become slow. This is due to the way the hard drive stores the information you install on your computer. The hard drive of your computer is composed of platters and disks. When you install a program on your computer or download data of any kind it is written continuously on the hard drive. When you remove these programs or data, however, small pieces of the data will remain on the hard drive. When the computer has to access data is must skip over these pieces as well as the empty space left behind from the removed data.

When you defrag the hard drive of your computer you remove the left over bits and pieces as well as the empty space. The computer moves all of the data and programs into a continuous line. After you defrag the hard drive your computer will no longer have to skip around to access the data that is stored on your hard drive. This will make the computer run much faster than before. You should always defrag a computer after a number of large files have been deleted from the computer. Below are the steps to take to defrag a computer.

The defrag process can take anywhere from thirty minutes to several hours, depending on the amount of data that needs to be moved on your computer. So the first step is to ensure that you have enough time to complete this task. There is no clear way to determine the amount of time it will actually take for the defrag process. However, there are several variables that will make it take more or less time.

If the computer is fairly new and the user has not yet deleted many files off of the hard drive, then the defrag should not take very long. This is due to the fact that the data are written in succession on the hard drive. A newer hard drive with very few deletes will have most of the successive lines of data intact. In contrast, if you own an older computer and it has been quite a while since the hard disk was last defraged, then it will take more time to complete. This is not an exact measure of the time it will take, however it is a good way to estimate the time you will need. Given this scale you can now decide the best time of day to complete the defrag of your hard drive.

Now that you have determined how much time you will need to defrag your hard drive, you can now start the process. There are two ways to access the defrag feature on your computer. The first way is to click on the start menu at the bottom left hand corner of the screen. Mouse over the word “programs” once you have opened the start menu. A new menu of items will appear to the right side. On this new menu, mouse over the word “accessories”. Once again this will open a new menu on the right side. On this new menu, mouse over the word “system tools”. Once again this will open a new menu on the right side. On this new menu click on the words “Disk Defragmenter”.

The Disk Defragmenter will pop open. You will now need to decide which disk you would like to defrag. Choose drive C: from the drop down menu and click on the analyze button at the bottom of the screen. The Disk Defragmenter will now gather information necessary to defrag the hard drive. This will only take a few moments. Once the analysis is complete the defragment button will become available to click. Click on this button once the program states is has finished the analysis. Repeat these steps for each hard drive on your computer. http://www.theeldergeek.com/disk_defragmenter_utility.htm

The second way to start the Disk Defragmenter is to click on the start menu at the bottom left hand corner of the screen. Then click on “My Computer” on the upper right hand side of the start menu. This will open the “My Computer” folder on your screen. On this screen you will be able to view all of the available drives on the computer. You will now right click on the disk that you wish to defrag. For most people this will be the C: drive. After you right click on the drive a menu will open. On this menu click on “properties”. This will open another menu. On the new menu there will be several tabs at the top of the screen. Click on the “Tools” tab on this menu. Once the tools tab is open, click on “Defragment Now”.

The Disk Defragmenter will pop open. Choose drive C: from the drop down menu and click on the analyze button at the bottom of the screen. The Disk Defragmenter will now gather information necessary to defrag the hard drive. This will only take a few moments. Once the analysis is complete the defragment button will become available to click. Click on this button once the program states is has finished the analysis. Repeat these steps for each hard drive on your computer.http://www.theeldergeek.com/disk_defragmenter_utility.htm