de frag

[MrBen5]

Hi, i heard someone (ethel) mention its important to defrag your computer regularly. Do i have to do this on a laptop too? and if so, how is it done?

[fo3nix]

If it's a newish computer (regardless of laptop or not), then it's not hugely important to do it that regularly. Once every few months will suffice.

[MrBen5]

how do i do it tho?

[Ethel]

Go to-

Start - control panel - performance and maintenance - rearrange items on hard disk.


It's simple enough - but click 'analyse' first. That will tell you if you need to defrag.

[MrBen5]

Can i do that whilst i am still using my laptop for other stuff?
I mean can i still play poker and use messenger whilst it is doing that analyse or defrag thing?

[Ethel]

Yes you can.

Before you start the defrag - you will see the option to 'free up space on hard disk'.

Do this first.

You can use your pc as usual whilst all this is going on.

[fo3nix]

It's best to just leave it though; it'll be faster.

[Ethel]

fo3nix - you have been clear.

Do you mean - leave it, don't bother defragging

Or

Don't use it while defragging.


Cleaning up the hard drive and defragging certainly makes the pc run faster.

[vehelpfulguy]

If I was defragging a PC I would not do ANYTHING else on it.

Also, a defrag can take over an hour (depending on size of hard disk and how disorganized it is).

Nobody has explained Defrag.

On a new PC or laptop, when Windows writes files to disk it puts them neatly one after the other.

Then as files get deleted, updated, added or moved then Windows put them all over the place on the disk.

Some large fles can even be split up into many files, scattered all over the disk.

So if you have a big movie file, you may see it as one file, but Windows may have it stored in bits all over the place.

The more FRAGMENTED your data is the more it slows Windows down (it spends longer hunting on the disk for the data)

If you run a defragmenter it tidies them all up by putting them all back neatly.

Because Windows is moving files all over the place during a defrag, this is why I would not use the PC.

[fo3nix]

I meant just leave it while defragging, and don't use it.

For the reasons vehelpfulguy gives.

[MrBen5]

Hmmm, cheers guys. I have had my laptop a couple of years now and never defragged it. Is it a necessity? I dont think i can be bothered waiting hours on end for it to defrag. (Assuming it will take that long since i have never done it). i only get a few hours in the evening to use it as i am at work all day. And i like to play my poker in the evening. Cheers

[Ethel]

You can leave it defragging over night. It does it by itself, so you just set it to start, and leave it to get on with it.