This Holiday Season many people will be unwrapping new computers, all boasting impressive speed capabilities and memory capacity. One of the first things these new computer owners will be doing is setting up their anti-virus software, considered a must-have for any system. Thinking their computer has been protected from any potential danger or attack most people will consider their work done and go about their activities unaware that their new computer still faces a serious threat.
While anti-virus software is extremely efficient in preventing, detecting, and removing computer viruses, worms, and trojan horses it does nothing to protect against another imminent threat to your computer, fragmentation.
Because many computers have built-in defragmenters there is a false sense of security that the drive has been adequately protected. Unfortunately this simply isn’t the case as these built-in solutions to fragmentation simply aren’t capable of handling the rigorous demands of a defragmenter. The only real solution to fragmentation is reliable defragmentation software, the kind designed by companies like Diskeeper.
For many people the dangers of fragmentation are widely unknown, bringing to mind a quote attributed to the French poet Baudelaire who said, “The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist.” In many ways fragmentation has managed to escape the attention of computer owners, a devastating mistake that has led to countless hard drive crashes.
The ability to exist and grow stronger undetected is perhaps fragmentation’s greatest trick. Fragmentation starts simple enough, breaking a file into two pieces and storing them in separate spaces on the drive. As time goes on that file that was in two pieces becomes a file broken into hundreds if not thousands of pieces, all strewn about the drive. Trying to recall a file becomes time-consuming and often unreliable as the drive is forced to gather all the pieces before it can deliver your request. This whole process is extremely taxing on the drive and it affects every function of operability.
Something as simple as booting up your system can become a lengthy process, trying to retrieve files and software, sending emails, browsing the Internet, loading applications, etc. all of these functions are severely delayed by fragmentation and the longer this disease goes untreated the worse it gets.
If fragmentation’s greatest trick is the ability to go undetected that means many computer owners are turning to the wrong solution when the disease starts to become a real problem. What this often means is people attribute the slowdown in computer operability to a virus. They add virus protection and get no result so they then figure the age of their drive is what’s causing the issue so they spend a lot of money to replace it, unnecessarily.
It’s unnecessary because something as easy as installing defragmentation can solve the problem. Defrag not only repairs the damaged files, piecing them together and saving them in one space, it also prevents fragmentation from returning, giving you added protection. Once defragmentation software has been installed the speed of a drive is returned and its reliability restored, giving your computer a new lease on life.
What needs to be learned is that fragmentation is real, it occurs naturally, and your anti-virus software provides no defense. The only way to protect your drive from the damages of fragmentation is with defragmentation software, truly a must-have for any system. If you’re one of those who receive a computer during the Holiday Season or you already have a computer that lacks defrag software do yourself a favor and protect the drive before it’s too late.
