is it a good idea to do every once in a while and what exactly does it do??

5/19/2006 10:53:42 AM

yes, it is a good idea to do occasionally - once a month is fine for the non-obsessive types. It might be considered "important", although by all means not required, to do it every 3 months or so.
Degragging physically moves data from one part of your hard drive to another. Over time, your hard drive gets "fragmented" (hense the name). You add and delete files, install programs, etc. You can have several files that are often used in conjunction spread over multiple platters and sectors of your hard drive. This means it takes longer to access this data. The defragger will organize the data on your drives so that its spread evenly and grouped smartly, so it can be found and trasferred faster.

5/19/2006 10:59:24 AM

Short Story: Imagine your files on your hard drive as books. Of course, each book has many pages. Now imagine if your pages were scattered all over you house. And to be able to read the book, you'd have to run all over the house to find your pages. Well, when you defrag, you basically collect all the pages and it takes you less time to find your book and read it.

Just do it.

5/19/2006 11:01:46 AM

thanks, so do i need to leave my computer alone while its doing it? or is it ok to be online and doing things while its defraging?

5/19/2006 11:03:03 AM

I always feel better leaving it alone. I'm sure it's fine to work while doing it, but i just feel kind of "uncomfortable" thinking that I may be working with the files its trying to move.
If you do it every couple week though, it will only take minutes.

Here's an easy way to set it up as a Windows Scheduled Task so you don't have to worry about it
http://www.lifehacker.com/software/feature/hack-attack-using-windows-scheduled-tasks-153089.php

5/19/2006 11:17:57 AM

you'll have more luck just leaving it alone. it takes a good bit of time to keep that in mind.

5/19/2006 11:19:18 AM

the more you run it the more efficient your hard drive will remain... the less often the higher the risk of getting unmovable fragments. i'd say once a week is optimal so you're not taxing your hdd more than what it's worth.

it really comes down to how often you move files around, copy/paste/delete (install/uninstall apps, etc) if you don't do much of this your need to defrag will be less. whereas a person who runs p2p or bit torrent on their main OS partition will be screwed if they don't do it once a day.

[Edited on May 19, 2006 at 12:19 PM. Reason : .]

5/19/2006 12:17:39 PM

Windows OneCare automatically runs a defrag for me every 2 weeks while im at work.


After reading about Vista's ability to auto load programs based on what you use the most, i wonder if defrag will be completely automated.

If what they're claiming actually works it would really be cool. Not only could the defrag decide when to run based on when you aren't at the computer, but it could automatically put the programs you use the most in the fastest spots on the disk.

5/19/2006 12:20:18 PM