Lab 16.3: Defragmenting the Hard Drive

Computers can have many problems that grow over time, including the fragmentation of files. When you create a file, it normally occupies contiguous hard-drive space (the clusters used to store the file are adjacent to each other). Over time, as the file size increases, there may not be enough contiguous space for the file. So, the file gets broken up. This process is called fragmentation. When enough files become fragmented, the hard drive wastes time going to different clusters to retrieve them. If fragmentation becomes bad enough, a condition called disk thrashing occurs: Operations slow noticeably, and the hard-drive light flickers to indicate constant activity.

Microsoft provides a utility called Disk Defragmenter to help the hard drive reorganize itself. Defragmentation is a process of rewriting files and organizing them so that access to the files is improved. This process can take several hours if you do not have adequate free space for the system to rewrite files or if there is a lot of fragmentation on the hard drive.

Disk Defragmenter is a utility that improves performance of the hard drive. You may want to run this utility on a regular basis. Because it can take several hours to complete, and because it is a good idea not to have any thing else running at the same time, you may want to have Disk Defragmenter run after you go to bed. If any files are open or in use they cannot be defragmented. A good practice is to review the report that is generated at the end of the process to see if any files were not defragmented. The process is the same for all Windows operating systems; only the location of the utility varies.

Upon completion of this lab, you will be able to:

• Defragment a partition on a hard drive

Set Up

You will need a computer running Windows 98, Windows 2000, or Windows XP.

Exercise

To run Disk Defragmenter,

1. Close all programs.

2. Launch the Disk Defragmenter utility.

   In Windows 98:

   Start Programs Accessories System Tools Disk Defragmenter

   In Windows 2000:

   Start Programs Accessories System Tools Disk Defragmenter

   In Windows XP:

   Start All Programs Accessories System Tools Disk Defragmenter

3. Select the drive you want defragmented. Click OK in Windows 98; click Defragment in Windows 2000/XP.

4. The system displays a summary of the progress being made as it defragments the drive.

5. Once the process is complete, click View Report to see the details. Note which files (if any) Disk Defragmenter was not able to defragment.

   Note

   Windows 2000/XP give you an additional option: Analyze. This option analyzes the partition to see whether you need to run the defragmentation process.

6. Close the Defragmenter window.