defragmentering your lap top

[ooh-la-la]

what does this actually mean? i'm doing it to my lap top now, it said it will speed up my computer, but it's slowing it down :-(

[sara3]

it will run slow whilst it's defragging.

it re-sorts all your stuff back into order, so it's nice and tidy. your computer will run better once it's done :o)

[Goodsoulette]

Yeah, you don;t really want to be using it when you do it.It can take hours and hours to finish if you havent done it before or for a long time. It's sorting the files out to make it more efficient in a nutshell.

[ooh-la-la]

i see, i haven't done it at all, and i've had this lap top for a year now. It is taking for ever, i took about ten mins to get to 1%!!!!! what will happen if i turn my lap top off? will it just start off from where it left off the next time i turn it back on again?

[madmaggot]

If you imagine the memory space in your computer to be loads of little squares; there are empty squares and full ones.
When your computer does stuff it uses memory, lots of squares for big stuff and fewer squares for little stuff. These squares are in blocks all over the memory 'grid'. There are empty squares in between the used ones, a bit like a car park with random empty spaces.
What a de-frag does is to 'shuffle' all the used memory squares so that they are all next to each other, this leaves a bigger space of empty squares available to be used. It then doesn't have to search around for a space that is big enough for what it has to do.

[scotman]

Ideally you should have had a very good clear out of things you definitely no longer need before defragging. Depending on the software you use to defrag you will get differing degrees of improvement in performance. I use PerfectDisc by Raxco and it has made a big difference to my PC.

[sara3]

you could stop it, but you should restart it sometime when you can leave it on, so it does the whole job.

and then run it at least once a month.

[madmaggot]

Best to do the job when you are not going to be wanting the lappy for a while. You can then set it to do a clean up at regular intervals.

[scotman]

Also you should do a full backup before defragging

[alexanderd]

it will be very very slow if this is the first time, best to start it and go and do something else for a few hours(yes it can take that long)

[Mobius1]

If you turn your laptop off then the defrag will stop and will have to be started again in most cases. Follow the advice already given. Set aside some free time when you won't be using it. Delete things on it that you know you don't need and then empty your recycle bin to permanently free up space.

Then, initiate the defrag on your laptop and let it complete it. Avoid using it while it's defragging. The process can take hours, as mentioned, and this will depend on the size of your hard drive, it's speed and how fragmented it is.

[scotman]

If you are going to stop the defrag then stop it from within the defrag program. This is less risky than just turning off your computer.

[ooh-la-la]

God dam it!!! it's been doing it for a couple of hours but it's only at 30% and i wanna go to bed soon :-( i also haven't backed anything up. If i stop it now will it save the progress it's already made?

[madmaggot]

Why can't you go to bed and leave it chugging away on it's own?

[AlBags]

You can stop it .. press the pause .. then stop button. Give it a couple of minutes to sort itself out, and close.
Continue tomorrow. Overall time to complete will not change.