why should i defrag, whats it for,?

Answer 1

De-fragmenting a hard disk does exactly what is says on the tin! It takes all the file fragments that have been written to your disk and moves them all to a more accessible position.

E.g.
Fragmented disk:
----00--0--00---------0-0--

De-fragmented disk:
0000000--------------------

This in theory should make accessing programs/files written to the disk quicker! Then again, newer hardware technology would mean shaving a few nano seconds here and there...

Answer 2

Defragmentation works like this:

As your computer reads and writes files for normal use, those files will at times be larger when being written back onto the hard drive (i.e. you edited a word document and made it bigger). Thus, the file may no longer fit where the computer last had it. So the computer will append the extra data to some other place on the hard drive. The next time you want to look at the document, its actually in two physical places on the drive. Over time this becomes a substantial time consumer and can even reduce the effective life of a hard drive (because it has to spin more to find the file).

To run defrag:
1. Click start
2. Click run
3. type MSconfig into the dialog box and click ok.
4. click on the BOOT.INI tab and then click the "safeboot" check box.
5. restart the computer (NOTE: all programs that normally start with your computer are now disabled! DO NOT surf the internet until you finished as you have NO security at this point.)
6. click start => all programs => accessories => system tools
7. click disk defragmenter and run the program. Allow it to finish (may take a long time).
8. click on start
9. click run
10. make sure MSconfig is in the dialog box and click ok.
11. go to the BOOT.INI tab and UNcheck the safeboot check box
12. Restart the computer and everything will be back to normal.

Answer 3

Defrag for efficiency, but not too often. To defrag, about 20% of the hard disk may need to be empty first.

If there is a power cut during defrag (unlikely), some of the hard disk may be corrupted.

Sometimes before defrag, individual files may exist in pieces. After defrag, most or all files will each exist in one piece each.

Answer 4

Defrag (defragmentation) pulls all of the fragmented bits of files together on the disk. It should make reading them a bit quicker and therefore speed up the system to the user.

Answer 5

YES it is. Defragmenting puts the files together thus speeding up your computer and puts less work on the hard drive.
Pretend this is your hard drive before defrag. files.
000----0000------000000-----00...

This is what you hard drive would look after defrag. is complete.
00000000000000000000

Answer 6

It puts all your files back in order, thus making the computer work faster.

Answer 7

just straightens up all the files and makes things nice and tidy...if it's really fragmented it will help speed things up

Answer 8

it keeps your comp running smoothly by pulling all the bits of different progs together

Answer 9

making more room on your pc it squashes all imput together making your pc run more efficiently i do mine once a month and that keeps it running fine

Answer 10

if u really wanna know...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defragmentation

enjoy