Make Your Computer Run Faster By Defragmenting
Defragment Only The Files You Want With Power Defragmenter
Oct 1, 2009
One of the main reasons for slow hard drive data accessing is the fragmentation of the files on the hard drive. Windows can defragment the hard drive, but only entire partitions, and that takes up a lot of time.
One way to make the hard drive run faster (but not waste time by performing a complete defragmentation) is by defragmenting only the files used most frequently or the files take up most space.
This task can easily be performed using a free application, called Power Defragmenter.
How to Download, Install and Use Power Defragmenter.
These 7 quick steps are all that is needed for a quick optimization of the hard drive:
- Go to http://www.softsailor.com/downloads/8454-download-power-defragmenter-3-0-free.html and download Power Defragmenter.
- Extract the content of the archive into a new directory on the hard drive and start the application.
- If the application cannot find the contig.exe file on the computer, an option to download it will be displayed. If given the option, download the 100Kb file (an internet connection is required for this).
- The Power Defragmenter will now start. It will also guide the user throughout the entire defragmentation process.
- When the applications queries for optimizing files or entire directories, select the “Defragment Files” option. Press Next.
- A window where the user can select up to 4 file extensions will be brought up.
- Click on "Defragment" and wait for the process to be completed.
If the computer is being used a lot for working with office files (PST in special), it would be a good idea to select the rtf and .pst extensions, since this type of files change more often that movies and images on the hard drive.
This is exactly what causes the fragmentation: a file changes over time and accesses far away clusters on the drive to write the data on (since the ones that are closer are already being used by other files). Read about how the hard disks allocates data.
More Tips One Disk Defragmenting
Disk Defragmentation is not rocket science it is quite easy to both understand and put into work. Here are some things users need to know about it :
- Defragmentation gains the user extra performance only if the drive is fragmented. If the hard drive has been recently formatted, not a lot of extra performance will be gained.
- Remember that defragmentation is recommended only for hard disk drives. Do not use this process for SSD drives as the drive might be damaged in the process.
- The defragmentation process requires extra space on the hard drive. This is because parts of the file are moved around on your hard drive. Try to keep a minimum of free space before attempting the process.
- Try to defragment the file types used most on the computer. Remember that defragmenting images and movies will not yield a lot of extra performance.
- When enough time is at disposal, perform a full defragmentation of the hard drive as the extra performance gained is noticeable at least.
While disk defragmenting will not solve all the speed problems with a computer, it is definitely a first step that should be taken by anybody that wants to get a maximum of performance out of their hardware. Defragmenting an entire partition can take up a few hours, depending on the capacity, but defragmenting only the file types used most on the computer is both fast and very rewarding.
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