defragging your hd on xp

[pothead]

http://forum.pcmech.com/showthread.p...threadid=51642

what is defragging what is it good for what are the bad sides about it and how is it done. I hear this term thrown around alot its bout time i figure out what the **** it means lol, especially if i wanna keep my computer in good health

Thanks,

The Pothead

[bailey]

a simple way to explane it is, think of your hard drive this way, you have files numbered 1 - 10, you remove number 5 leaving a hole of empty space, you then install file no. 11, part of it will be written in the empty space where 5 was and anything more will be in a new space no. 11, file 11 is what they call fragmented, parts of it is scattered all over the hard drive. when you want the date contained in 11, the drive must search more spaces to find it, slowing down the whole system.

defragmenting it puts all the files together the way it should be. giving you maxium speed finding all the data

[Tuf]

In theory the bad side is lost data. In realty a better running computer and some claim longer hard disk life.

[bailey]

I have never heard of anyone loosing any data with the defragment program.

[Tuf]

I have never had it happen myself. But I have certainly heard of it. Anytime you manipulate data on a drive you run the risk of losing it or corrupting it. Even Diskeeper and Norton recommend backing up before defragmenting.

Occassionally I will fix a computer that has had a boot time defragmentation done on it and it will no longer boot. They always have seperate hard drive controllers and Diskeeper will make you really work at it to even do it. But some people can find a way to outsmart anything.

That being said all of my computers defrag every night. Or they have Diskeeper running continuously in the set it and forget it mode.