While it is unquestionable that computers have made our lives a lot more convenient, providing us with the ability to complete a number of tasks in a short period of time, they have also fostered a growing sense of impatience as people have developed a lower tolerance for setbacks and delays.
In the past something as simple as getting directions to a movie theater would have involved a number of steps and relied upon the accuracy of somebody else’s memory but now we just plug in an address and have a printable map generated. If we wanted the latest developments concerning a world story we may have had to wait until the late news appeared on television or the early morning paper was delivered; now with one click of a button we can watch news unfold as it happens.
The way it was in the past was simply the way it was, it didn’t make sense to grow impatient because there really was no alternative to the setbacks and delays. All that left the minute our computers offered an alternative to that way of life. Not only did the manner in which we once gathered information go out the window, our idea of an acceptable “waiting period” for that information went with it.
If you’ve ever seen somebody run across a problem while trying to get directions off their computer you’ll notice that impatience. They want their driving route and map in seconds and if it doesn’t happen then there could be a few blows to the side of the computer. Same thing with pulling up news articles, if a page takes too long to load then there may be some less than encouraging words shouted at the screen.
What many people have failed to realize is that with convenience comes responsibility, meaning if they want their computer to meet their demands then they have to take care of their computer’s health. Failing to keep a computer’s health in top shape will not only cause inconvenient delays but will eventually lead to a catastrophic crash that could wipe out everything that has been saved on the hard drive.
There is a direct correlation between computer health and computer speed and if your computer is working properly then its speed should reflect that health. When problems with speed become apparent then that is a clear sign that something is wrong with the hard drive. More often than not this problem is associated with fragmentation, a computer disease that can drain a drive of its speed and cause reliability issues.
Fragmentation is a naturally occurring disease that will appear on a drive if you have not taken the steps to protect against it. The disease is progressive and the longer it goes untreated the worse things get, not just for your computer but for your state of mind as well. Knowing that your computer once operated in an efficient and reliable manner only adds to your frustration when those two attributes are no longer present.
Efficiency and reliability are always victimized by fragmentation because the disease attacks the manner in which files are saved and stored on a drive. By design a hard drive will store files as they are saved, placing one after the next. That may sound reasonable enough but when a saved file is recalled, modified, and then resaved the hard drive can no longer fit that file in its original space. The solution isn’t to make room but rather to cut the excess information and store it in the next available space; this is now a fragmented file.
There is no limit to how many times a file can be fragmented so it is common for a hard drive to be littered with hundreds if not thousands of pieces of a single file. Any time those files are recalled it takes the drive longer to gather those pieces before delivering it to your screen. It’s not just a slow process but an arduous task as well and the demand placed on the hard drive can eventually become too much to handle and ensure in a computer crash.
It’s important to remember that your computer is constantly saving files, whether they are temporary or permanent, and this can quickly cause fragmentation to become out of hand. A fragmented hard drive will show a number of symptoms including difficulty booting up, problems recalling files, setbacks in delivering emails and receiving emails, loss of information, etc. When these are noticed it is critical that you address the problem.
Fortunately addressing the problem is simple and requires something as easy as defragmentation software. With products like Diskeeper 2010 now available a computer owner can install their own defragmentation software and repair the damage caused by fragmentation as well as prevent fragmentation from returning.
Defrag software cleans the hard drive of the fragmented pieces, gathering those that belong to a single file and saving them as one unit in one space. This makes them easier to access thus increasing the speed of the hard drive. It also ensures the reliability of the hard drive as it will no longer lose pieces of a file.
Any computer owner who values the convenience afforded by their system should take a moment to install defragmentation software. The great thing about defragging your hard drive is that you don’t have to wait until there is a problem; by being proactive you can save yourself the headaches of the inevitable slowdowns and lost or damaged files. Take the time to keep your computer operating at a level where you won’t have to worry about delays or crashes, install defragmentation software today.
