Technology Tip Number 162
Spring Defragging

Are you ready to clean up your computer after a long winter of downloads and program installing?  Today's technology tip will show you how to maintain your computer by  defragging the hard drive.

Why defrag your hard drive anyway?
As files are stored on your computer's hard drive they are sometimes separated into many little bits.  It's sort of like what happens when you bring the mail into your house from the mailbox.  You open some of it up, you put some of it in the trash, and you pile the bills up some place special.  You kind of know where everything is but going back and finding it all isn't that efficient of an operation.  Similarly, when your computer opens up new software and saves files it doesn't always put everything in the most efficient place for review later.  When you defrag the hard drive the computer reorganizes all the files on your hard drive for maximum efficiency.

Here's a link to more information about file fragmentation:
http://www.geekgirls.com/windows_defrag.htm

How to defrag the hard drive:
The follow example comes from Microsoft Windows XP but works similarly in other versions.

Go to the START menu, then All Programs, then Accessories, then System Tools, then Disk Defragmenter:

In the window that appears you want to select your C: drive to defragment (this is usually letter designation for your computer's hard drive).  Once you have selected the drive to defragment simply click "Defragment" to start.  Keep in mind that defragmenting your hard drive will take several minutes.

PRACTICE ACTIVITY:  See if you can get to the "Disk Defragmenter" right now and if there's time defragment you hard drive drive today.

TO KEEP ON LEARNING:  To learn more about defragmenting your hard drive and other housekeeping tips for your computer try searching the internet for:

Disk defragmenter
Computer housekeeping tips
Cleaning up your disks

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