how do you defrag a computer ? and what exaclty is that?

Question

if you can give details please i think it clean the computer and helps it go faster something like that help!!!

Answer 1

Try this -

Start -> All Programs -> Accessories -> System Tools -> Disk Fragment

Simple Explanation -

Imagine that your hard drive has a puzzle in it. On the puzzle is all of your data and programs. It puts the puzzle togeather so that your computer does not have to look all over the place for the top of the puzzle or the bottom of the puzzle. It puts all the pieces in the same place where they should be.

Answer 2

defragging the computer won't work. Defragging the harddrive will. It doesn't really clean anything, it just puts the files on the harddisk in a better order, so they can be read faster (by the harddrives heads).
While you're at it: do a scandisk as well: that will check for any damaged files and blocks on your harddisk.
Best way to go about it: open My Computer, right click the C: drive, select Properties. In the screen that opens, select the Extra tab. First select Scan this disk for errors (will take a while, might require a reboot!), after that's done goto the same page and select Defrag.
Don't run any programs while defragging or scanning: it will slow it down or even stop the process.
Defragging should be done depending on the use of the computer.

Answer 3

If you are using Windows, start by launching Explorer. Right-click on the drive you want to defrag, choose properties. On the dialog that appears, go to the Tools tab, then click the "Defragment Now..." button; when the Disk Defragmenter dialog appears, click the "analyze" button and let it work.

A disk becomes fragmented after you have deleted a lot of files. What happens is that you can have a lot of empty space on your disk, but none of that space is contiguous. This makes it hard for Windows to find a large chunk of disk to write a file to. This can hurt your speed, since Windows needs to write temp files and the swap file (a large file) when you perform various tasks, such as switching apps. If there is no large contiguous space to write the swap file to, it will really slow your system down.

Answer 4

Click start, all programs, accessories, system tool, disk defrag. It cleans up clutter space and fragmented files. You should run at least one scan per month. The scan can take from 15minutes to 3 hours, depending upon the size of your computer and how long it has been since you last ran a scan.

During the scan, you should leave the computer sitting and not being using it.

Answer 5

imagine it like this,

your blank hard drive is an empty grid, when it writes data into it, it starts at the top left, working right, then when the top line is filled it works down the lines from left to right.

when you delete something there is now a gap in the data, but when you write more data to the hard drive, it continues where it left off.
when you get to the end, it starts to fill in the gaps that have been created by missing data, but if a file cant fit in one of these gaps, it splits the file and stores it in the next available gap (this creates fragments of data)

so to open one file will force the hard drive heads to move to several locations on the disk to retrieve all the data required.

all disk defrag does, is sort all these 'fragmented (split up)' files and stores them together. thus making it quicker for your hard drive to access them.


disk defrag does more than simply this, but this is the main function of it, it also moves files that you use most often into the same area of the disk to improve loading times, and stuff you hardly use near the end.

hope that explains it, it is much easier to illustrate with a diagram but unable to on this yahoo answers

Answer 6

Yes..it is a wonderful tool...Defrag means "defragmentation" of your hard disk. Every time you download a program or file, a space in your hd is filled. Between one file and another remain tiny "fragments" of space. The defrag helps to group all the files and can free space to be filled. Your pc will run faster, of course.
Now, how to use it depends on the Windows version you are runnning. I haven't see it on W2000 or WXP. I do not know if this defrag was available through W98.

Answer 7

To defragment, go to
Start > Programs > Accessories > System tools > defragment
On Windows XP I believe it has been renamed "Checkdisk".

Basically what it does is the files on your computer are stored on the disk in chunks of 16kb (or maybe more, depending on your computer).... and Windows doesn't always arrange them neatly on the disk....... defragmenter puts them straight so the computer can access them faster (I guess it's a bit like tidying out your sock drawer)....... if it gets real bad, I've heard it can cause premature wear on your hard drive's mechanical parts from having to work harder to find the files.
There's a brainier explaination on Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defragmentation

It can take anything from 20minutes to over 5hrs, depending how big the disk is & how badly it needs doing..... if you do it often enough, it shouldn't take as long next time you do it.

Answer 8

Under Windows xp.. go to Start--->All programs--->Accessories---> System tools ---> Disk Defragmenter.
Defragmenting your computer helps it to work faster, but it doesn't clean it.
There is fragment of files that are stored on different clusters on the HD, defrag helps to reorganise the structure of the disk by rejoining fragments of a file.

Answer 9

yes,thats right. defraging your computer is like cleaning it up. it puts all your files in the places it suppose to go. it orginizes your computer. GO to my computer-opinions-pick which drive you want to defrag then hit defrag and the process starts it will take awhile if your computer has never been through a defraging before. Happy To Help!!!!

Answer 10

its compressing all of your files so there is more space on ur hard drive first click control panal in the start menue then click preformace and maintnence and rearange items on you hard disk to make programs run faster and the click defragment when your done you might want to also go to free up space on you hard disk its in the same spot you find the defragment and select drive C; and click ok