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What is defrag and do I need it?
Defrag is a program that is part of windows and when used will greatly speed up your computer. Now for what defrag does that is a bit technical so I will explain it as easily as I can. I believe you need to know how something work before you use it. When you add a file to your hard drive either but download or by installing a new program your computer records it to the hard drive. The inside of a hard drive looks like a couple of gold CDs on stacked on top of each other. These disc will spin at about 7200 rpm. Now windows will just write new information wherever there is a big enough space on the disc. The problem with this is info is spread all over the place. This will cause programs to run slower because your computer is spending time looking for them. With defrag windows take all the programs and file and organizes them for better performance. This will also help free up extra disc space for those of you running a little low. Well now that is out of the way here is how to do it.
FIRST YOU WILL NEED TO TURN OFF YOUR SCREEN SAVER. FOR INFO ON THAT CHECK OUT THE DESKTOP SETTING PAGE.
ALSO MAKE SURE YOU RUN A DISK CLEAN FIRST.
Click here to learn how to perform a disk cleanup
MAKE SURE YOU DON'T HAVE ANY OTHER PROGRAMS OPEN. THEY COULD CAUSE ERRORS IN THE DEFRAG. ONCE YOU HAVE DONE THIS GO TO START MENU, ALL PROGRAMS
THEN GO TO ACCESSORIES, SYSTEMS TOOLS AND THERE YOU WILL FIND DEFRAG
WHEN YOU OPEN DISK DEFRAGMENTER IT WILL LOOK LIKE THIS
ONCE HERE ALL YOU NEED TO DO IS CLICK ON DEFRAGMENT AND IT WILL DO THE REST. THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IS TO MAKE SURE YOU DON'T RUN ANY PROGRAMS UNTIL IT HAS FINISHED. IF YOU DO IT MAY MESS UP THE DEFRAG AND YOU WILL HAVE TO START ALL OVER AGAIN.