Making your computer experience better one step at a time.
When it comes to overall system performance, having a defragmented hard drive can really slow you your performance down. How does this happen you might ask? Well, when your create a file or folder or a series of files such as temporary internet files from browsing the web, they don't all get stacked neatly as one would think. Part of the file goes here, part goes there and parts go everywhere in between. This is known as fragmentation. When you defrag your hard drive, you're essentially taking the broken up file and combining it back together and then stacking as many whole files into a cylinder called a sector. A completely defragged sector of data has a faster seek/read time than a file spread over several sectors due to fragmentation.

Now, what most people don't know is that file placement is just as important as a defragged hard drive. The built in Disk Defrag tool in Windows XP is good, but it isn't spectacular as it doesn't show true file to drive alignment. A step up from this would be Auslogic's Disk Defrag (www.auslogics.com), a completely free open source multi-platform defrag that dramatically out performs the basic built in defrag in Windows. Now if you really want to get crazy, invest in Ultimate Defrag 2008.

Ultimate Defrag 2008 (www.disktrix.com) allows for specific folder/file placement anywhere on the drive, in any particular order. This means that you could theoretically map your drive with the most used folder/files on the fastest part of the drive (the farthest outside ring) and everything you don't use nearly as much but still want/need on the slowest part of the drive (the inner most ring). This brings a whole new level of performance to defragging a hard drive. But don't take my word for it, visit their website and download the fully functional 14 day trial for yourself.

I've heard alot of people talk about other Defrag programs like O&O, Disk Keeper, and some other huge name brand ones. Of all the ones I've tried I still use Auslogics and Disktrix. It's all about personal preference. But the key, the primary focus on this page is regardless of what ever you use, at least use something, and use it regularly and on top of the cleaning tips, and the constant spyware scanning, you'll never likely see a drop in your overall system performance.