Atlanta 12/4/2010 12:43:41 AM
Installing Defragmentation Software the Answer to Extending Life of Hard Drive, Regardless of Age
A
common misconception about computers is that with age their performance
and reliability level tends to diminish. The truth is age has little to
do with
a computer’s ability to operate; it only becomes a factor when the
owner neglects to keep their computer healthy. Just as there are car
owners who brag about having several hundreds of thousands of miles on
their vehicle so too are there computer owners who
have logged countless hours with their hard drive. The common element
between these two is maintenance, a simple and effective way to protect
the health and extend the life of both items.
It
would be unrealistic for a car owner to expect their vehicle to run
well if they never changed the oil and in the same light it would be
unrealistic for
a computer owner to expect their drive to remain fast and efficiently
without ever taking the time to protect the computer from the inherent
dangers that threaten those very attributes.
What
many people have fallen victim to is the constant marketing push
highlighting newer, faster, more capable computers. These computers are
billed as superior
to the units manufactured just a month ago and a must-have for anybody
serious about computer operability. While the technological advances in
concern to computers are certainly taking place it doesn’t necessarily
mean that they are superior to what currently
sits on your desk, dining room table or lap.
These
newer computers may come equipped with more capabilities due to drive
size but they are also designed in such a way that they are exposed to
the same
dangers that have plagued computers for years. Because of this design
these newer computers can quickly fall victim to the same performance
problems encountered by their predecessors.
Among
the biggest problems facing computers, older or newer, is the computer
disease known as fragmentation. This disease is born as the direct
result of
how hard drives are designed and can effect a newer computer just as
easily as it can an older computer, it all depends on how well those
computers are maintained and protected.
Because
fragmentation is a disease that originates on the hard drive and not a
virus that attacks from the outside it often goes overlooked. Try
opening
and email or following a link that contains a virus and you’ll likely
see a series of pop-up warnings imploring you to reconsider, that’s not
the case with fragmentation which has a more methodical approach to
choking the life out of your computer.
Hard
drives have always been made to accommodate the most information
possible and today’s drives are no exception. While the newer units may
be capable
of storing more files the method by which they do this hasn’t changed
and that can cause serious problems. Because hard drives want to store
as much information as possible they save files in a contiguous manner,
placing one after the next with no space in
between. By doing this the hard drive maximizes free space for
additional files but this also invites the computer disease
fragmentation.
As
these saved files are recalled, modified and then resaved the file
becomes bigger, meaning it will no longer fit in the space the hard
drive originally
created. The hard drive’s answer is to cut the excess information and
store it in the next available space, creating a fragmented file. This
may seem harmless enough but there is no limit to how many times a file
can be fragmented and it’s not uncommon for
a single file to be broken into hundreds if not thousands of pieces,
all scattered across the hard drive.
These
fragmented pieces slow down a computer’s performance ability and
compromise its reliability because it can take the hard drive
considerable time to
gather those pieces whenever you try to recall a file. When you stop to
realize that every action you take on your computer is contributing to
the progress of fragmentation it becomes clear that by doing nothing to
fight the disease you’re only inviting disaster.
That
disaster will almost certainly come in the form of a computer crash as
the weight of the fragmented files becomes too great for a hard drive to
handle.
When that crash occurs there is an excellent chance that everything you
have stored on your hard drive will be wiped out. That means no more
pictures, music files, documents, etc., all gone.
But
just as there is motor oil to keep a car’s engine running smoothly
there is defragmentation software to keep your hard drive operating
effectively and
efficiently. Products like Diskeeper 2010 are designed to scan your
hard drive for fragmented files, join the pieces that belong to a single
file, and save that file in one space; essentially cleaning up your
computer. Because defragmentation software repairs
these fragmented files the speed at which your computer is capable of
operating improves and the reliability of the hard drive is restored.
The
great thing about installing defragmentation software is it’s not just
designed to fix existing problems but to prevent future attacks of
fragmentation
as well. Imagine if you only had to put oil in your car once and didn’t
have to worry about your engine ever again, that’s what defragmentation
software can offer in the fight against fragmentation. Whether you have
an older computer or just bought a new one
you should always protect it from fragmentation if you want it to last.
