Yet ANOTHER way to speed up your computer! - Part 6 of the Extending the Life of your Computer Series

This is a simple, yet often overlooked part of taking care of your computer’s maintenance. It’s kind of like the question - how long do you go before changing the oil on your car? It just needs to be done regularly to keep your computer running at maximum performance (and it seems everyone wants that as fast as possible). My sister says that if you go too long without defragging, things get flaky & if you fill up your hard drive entirely, it won’t defrag. (A note about her description of the file folders — how does she know how my office is & that I pile folders on the floor?!!!). So extend the life of your computer & defrag it today, then get on a schedule of routinely doing it - the payoff is worth it. You won’t be buying a new one as soon!
Defrag? You hear about it but do you do it?

What is Defrag or defragment?

Defrag is your hard drive cleaning up. Imagine your files on your hard drive as a filing cabinet in an office. When you first move into your office (new computer) everything is nicely arranged. You work for a while and you are so busy, that you don’t return your files to the filing cabinet. Now the files are in piles, on the floor, and scattered around. You’re productivity slows down because it takes time to find things and it takes longer to find a place to work. Same goes for your computer. Over time, the files get stored where it’s convenient. Eventually everything is all over and your computer slows down in trying to find files or step on any files. Defrag, takes all thoses files and stores them neatly back into the file cabinet. Clean office — clean computer, you work faster because your computer is finding your information faster!

How often should I defrag?

Monthly is a good guide. Don’t remember when you did it last or just wondering if it needs defrag? When you start defrag, click on Analyze. If it says you don’t need to defrag, exit it. If it says you should, then defrag.

How do I defrag?

I am assuming you are running XP. (If you are running Win 98 or ME systems, you should download a defrag program. I have yet to hear the exact method on how to defrag Vista.)

1. First let’s do a little cleanup to make this even better.
   1. Clean up & delete any useless/junk mail and empty your trash bin in your mail program
   2. Delete all unnecessary or junk files
   3. Run Disk Cleanup
      1. How: Click Start, point to All Programs, point to Accessories, point to System Tools, and then click Disk Cleanup.
      2. Disk Cleanup can do all this for you:

      3. •	Remove temporary Internet files.
         •	Remove downloaded program files. For example, ActiveX controls and Java applets that are downloaded from the Internet.
         •	Empty the Recycle Bin.
         •	Remove Windows temporary files.
         •	Remove optional Windows components that you are not using.
         •	Remove installed programs that you no longer use.

         Click on any boxes that you would like it to do: I would recommend Temporary Internet Files & Recycle Bin

      4. Note: Emptying the recycle bin is up to you. I usually take a quick run through the recycle bin (Windows Explorer & click on Recycle bin and look through the files listed) and make sure there is nothing that I really wanted. Once the recycle bin is emptied any files that you deleted that you might have wanted to retrieve are gone for good.
   4. If you use Firefox, empty your cache. In Firefox, go to Tools | Options | Advanced Tab and click on Clear Now in the cache section.
   5. Exit all applications
   6. Unplug your network connection, turn off your virus checker and firewall. (Steps 7 & 8 will make the defrag run faster and better.)
2. Go to Start | All Programs | Accessories | System Tools | Disk Defragmenter
3. Click on Analyze. If it tells you: “You should defragment this volume” then continue on.
4. Click on Defragment and go take a break from your computer. It takes a while depending on your the size of your hard drive. (I would expect on an average computer at least 30 minutes, most likely an hour, and it could go for 2 hours.) This is a great thing to start and go to bed.
5. Repeat steps 2 & 3 for any EHD’s you have connected too!

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