Three Surprising Things About Hard Drive Defragging

Back in the bad old days of computing, hard-drive defragmentation was a big fish. You needed a quality third-party "defragger," and you needed to run it regularly—at least at one time a month—to ensure optimum system performance.

Times have changed. Although computer files still get break open into fragments and scattered across your hard driving force's platters, the computers and drives themselves are so much faster straight off that atomization isn't the same carrying into action-wrecking job it once was.

What's more, if you're a Windows 7 drug user, you really shouldn't undergo to worry about fragmentation at all. Check out these trey important facts about hard drive defragging:

1. In Windows 7, the built-in Magnetic disc Defragmenter utility runs automatically at scheduled times, usually one time per week. This happens by default on, so chances are good your disk drive is already defragged. And by most accounts, the utility compares favorably with third-company alternatives, so Don't spend money on another defragger unless you have very specific reasons for doing so.

2. You don't necessarily have to leave your computer on overnight. If Disk Defragmenter International Relations and Security Network't able to run at, say, 1 a.m. Wednesday, it will set in the next time your computer is idle.

3. You should never defragment a solid-state drive off (SSD). Doing so commode shorten its lifespan. In fact, whether you purchased a laptop with an SSD installed operating theater upgraded your laptop with i, be positive to disenable scheduled defragmentation in Windows 7. Click Start, type disk, and then click Magnetic disc Defragmenter. Click Configure docket to disable the feature.

Past the way, if you have an external hard drive, united that's non e'er connected to your PC, information technology may non get the chance to benefit from Windows' scheduled defragging. Thus, you should course Disk Defragmenter connected it manually every month just about.

For Thomas More on the subject, read Lincoln Spector's Defragging: How, Wherefore and Whether.

Contributing Editor Rick Broida writes about business and consumer technology. Ask for help with your PC hassles at hasslefree@pcworld.com, or judge the care for trove of accommodative folks in the PC World Residential area Forums. Sign on to have the Hassle-Free PC newsletter e-mailed to you all calendar week.

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