You need to run Disk Defragmenter once a month or so to keep your file system healthy.  It's also a good idea to run Check Disk just before running Disk Defragmenter, or you could run into compound problems with your hard disk.  Disk Defragmenter is available from your start menu; but before you run it, you will need to shut down all tasks that are running on your computer and which could interfere with proper completion of the task.  Therefore, I recommend that you run the following registry program and then restart your PC in order to get Disk Defragmenter to run without interference.

Here's how:

• Open My Computer by double-clicking on it's icon on the desktop.

• Right-Click on the hard drive to defragment.  A menu pops up.  Select Properties.

• Select the Tools tab.

• Click "Defragment Now".  The Disk Defragmenter program opens.

• Click "Defragment".

Technical Information:

The file system that comes with Windows stores your files wherever they can fit on the disk.  When it finds a free spot on the disk for your file, it starts saving it.  However, if it doesn't have room for all of it right there, it stores some more in the next free location.  This continues until the entire file is saved.  The file system keeps track of all the locations that the file is stored in.  This file is now "fragmented".  Your computer will run faster and more efficiently if all the files are contiguous (not fragmented).  Disk Defragmenter organizes your data so that all the files are contiguous.  This makes the computer run faster because it doesn't have to spend a lot of time looking all over your hard disk for everything it accesses during routine operations as well as file retrieval and saving.

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