How To Defragment Your Hard Drive in Windows Vista

Unexplainable system slowdowns can always be explained, and more often than not they are the result of your computer's hard drive become fragmented.  Fragmentation is when the various components of a file are scattered across the hard drive in different locations, forcing the hard drive to scan to find each individual component of the file.  It may only take an extra millisecond to load the file, but combine that with millions of files and suddenly it takes up quite a bit more time.

Vista is becoming known as being a reliable and stable operating system. It is also known for its quick performance and fantastic visual appeal. However, disk fragmentation can still affect Vista and cause the associated slowdowns.  Luckily, it is quite simple to fragment your computer with Vista, either via the built in defragmentation program or through a third party program (which we'll talk about in a minute).

The “in-house” defragmentation solution is a good one, and it is recommended that people who do not want to use a third party program simply use the program bundled with Vista.  However, the program below defragments the hard drive a bit quicker and is just as easy to use.

Introducing PowerDefragmenter

Using PowerDefragmenter is very simple:

• Download the program here.
• Install and then run the program.
• Pick whatever option you want:
  • Defragment Files: Defragments up to four files.
  • Defragment Folders: Defragments up to four folders.
  • Defragment Disk: Defragments the entire hard disk.
  • PowerMode: Runs multiple defragmentations while remaining in sync.
• Wait for the program to run its course.
• You're done!

Congratulations, you have just defragmented your hard drive!  You should already notice the increase in system performance: programs will load faster, the internet will be quicker, and windows will open and close faster.  This performance gain will last until whenever the hard drive becomes fragmented again, which is around two months or so for the average computer user.

In order to maintain a consistently high level of system performance, defragment your hard drive regularly, and don't forget to scan for viruses!