To Defrag or not to Defrag ... it's not really a question.

For those of you who have messy desks all cluttered with papers and notes everywhere, you should know that your computer doesn't have a great sense of organization when it comes to saving data. So yes, your computer really is like you!

Just like some of you who take notes and just leave them on the desk because you know exactly where they are, your computer does something sort of the same way. When you save a piece of information, your computer sort of scatters the information all over the hard drive. All the data that makes up a file on your computer gets placed in random places and your computer has to work hard to put those pieces of information back together when you ask for it to open up.

So how do you fix this? Well, when your desk gets cluttered with papers what do you do? You reorganize your desk of course! The process of your computer of saving in random spots is called fragmentation and the way it reorganizes itself is called De-Fragmentation.

So how do I de-frag my computer? If you're running Windows XP like I am, then it's incredibly simple. Follow my map below and you'll find the program you need

Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Disk Defragmenter

Once you've got this program open you can hit the analyze button and it will show you the status of what your hard drive looks like. If you've done this for the first time since you bought the computer and it's been a year or so, it's going to have a lot of red bars.

RED BARS BAD, BIG BLUE BLOCKS GOOD!

Once you see the status of your hard drive, you can then hit defragment and let your computer do its job. Now, the key to this is leaving the computer alone while it's doing this. It would not be a good idea to go browsing the Internet because you would be adding more files that it would have to organize. I'll talk about Internet files later.

When your computer is done, it will tell you that it's done but some files couldn't be fixed. Don't worry about that unless you really want to see fancy numbers. Now, defragment 2 more times. YES I SAID TWO MORE TIMES! DON'T ARGUE WITH ME! Doing this 3 to 4 times will make sure things are in order really well and you'll definitely notice your computer speed up some, especially when you're trying to start programs or open files.

That's all for today. Give your brains and computers a rest. :)