Cleaning up Your Computer
From: David Neeley

First, there is a question with the latest computers about
whether defragmentation makes much difference on the
newest, fastest hard drives.

That said, most of us don't *have* the newest, fastest hard
drives!

Defragmentation is the process of collecting all the
various parts of computer data files together, so the bits
and bytes are all sequential or "contiguous." That way,
when the read/write heads locate the beginning of a file
they waste no time and incur no extra wear in zig-zagging
around the disk to move from part to part as they must do
for fragmented files.

But that's not all there is to it! The "smarter"
defragmentation programs determine what files are accessed
most often, and put them in the first sectors of the disk
(on the outside tracks, in fact, because more data goes
under the heads with a given amount of rotation).

Some schemes locate the executable files including the
operating system's critical parts and frequently used
applications up front, too, because the computer accesses
these extremely frequently.

Microsoft normally licenses very basic utilities such as
this from other vendors. I am not sure about their current
defragmentation utilities, but for many years they licensed
an extremely basic one from Symantec. 

Obviously, people making and selling more specialized tools
try to build in enough abilities to make it worth the
customer's while to buy the separate utility.

Also, please note that most Windows 2000 and XP computers
use a different file system from Windows 98 and ME. They
work somewhat differently, but the general principles I
have discussed are still applicable.

However, one problem that many regular defragmentation
utilities do not do at all--or, in other cases, may not do
well--is to defragment specific items that can cause severe
performance problems...such as the Registry "hives" (which
my first post spoke about) and several other kinds of files
that are often not touched by traditional resources. This
is why the "registry defrag" tools are often needed in
addition to the more well-known defragmentation utilities.

Normally, when working on a client's system or one of my
own, I do the conventional defragmentation first, then
follow with a thorough defrag of the Registry and the other
system files that were not done with the first process.

Hard disks have become so fast and so densely packed with
information that the jumping around of the disk heads is
less of a problem than it was previously...at least for the
data files. Recent tests on some of these drives, as I
mentioned in the beginning, say that defragmentation of
data and executable files may not be a serious problem for
these disks. 

However, I think it is accurate to say that Registry
problems are still with us--and, with all the programs
folks are using today, may even be growing worse than in
the past.

All of which is why when I can I use one of my Linux
machines! Much faster and less problem-prone than Windows.
The Mac OSX machines are also lovely, by the way.

For now, if you have the Norton Utilities that include
"Speed Disk" or another third-party defragmenter, use it.
Otherwise, use the built-in tool included with Windows for
the file defragmentation and follow with one of the
registry defragmentation tools I mentioned before that are
free for the "finishing touch."

David is an active FFL member.