Well back to windows xp slow startup and how hard disk fragmentation can cause this. Now you have cleaned up the physical bits and pieces of your disk and you have got rid of all the crud. You may find that your system may now run considerably faster. There is another area that may cause slowing down of your PC running under windows XP. Fragmentation!
What’s hard disk fragmentation?
Well consider this analogy. What if you put every page of your daily newspaper in a different room? In order to read it you would have to go around pick up each piece and put it into order before you start reading it. (That’s what I have to do after my wife has read it).
Anyway you may take 15 minutes or so before it is in a readable format.
This is exactly what happens with some the files on your disk. Windows-XP has to go and find each part and put them in order.
So how do the files get split up and put on different parts of the disk?
Remember you started off with your spanking new PC, hardly anything on your disk. You start loading things down to it, gradually using more and more of the disk. Well as long as you do not delete anything then these files will all be nice and together. Then you look at your photos and say “that not a very nice one of me” off to trash.
And so on. This creates little empty spaces on your disk which windows xp tries to use when a new file comes along. Hah! There’s a empty bit put a bit of the file there and then go find another empty bit to put the rest and so on.
You now have a fragmented file.
Another way this can happen is when your initial file has to grow bigger. It is already slotted nice and neatly in one space but then you need to add to it. Guess what, no space at the end so off windows goes to find a bit of empty space. Hope it’s big enough.
Anyway over time things get worse and worse and now you get files that can be split up in thousands of different spaces. This will slow windows down as it goes to find all the different pieces, sorts then into order and then presents the file to you or another program. (Are your games slow)?
Well you can fix this. Once again windows knows this happens so has provided you will an accessory once again to fix it.
Perform the following:
1. On your start menu (bottom left corner) place your mouse pointer and click the right mouse button.
2. Place your mouse pointer on “explore” and click the right mouse button.
3. You should now have a screen showing your file structure.
4. Place your mouse over the part that probable says “Local Disk (C:)
(Whatever it is called it the (C:) is the important part)
5. Left click and it should highlight. Right click the mouse while it is selected.
6. You should get another menu. Right at the bottom you will see “properties”. Left click it.
7. You should get a box that shows a pretty circle with blue and pink segments in it. (If you have more pink than blue then you are in a good state space wise on your disk. If you have only a small sliver of pink then you are in some other trouble. (Send me a comment if you want)
8. At the top of the box there is a menu. Click “Tools” with your left mouse button.
9. You should now see a button saying “Defragment Now” Left click it.
10. Another window should open. At the top is listed your disk drives, left click “C” drive. Then at the bottom left click “Analyse”.
11. Away windows will go looking to see how much your files are fragmented. It may take a while if the disk fragmentation is bad. Eventually you will get a nice colourful display bar in the middle and a message saying you should defrag this disk or not.
12. Now in the display bar, if you have lots of blue you are usually OK. If you have lots of red then you will get the “defragment message. If you have masses of red then you are in real trouble and you must defragment.
13. Left click on the “Defragment button and away it will go. Go off and watch a film or something it may take a while if your disk is badly fragmented.
14. You may hit another problem here. To defragment, Windows has to find enough clear space to assemble the file it is defragmenting. It has to be large enough to assemble the file contiguously (now there’s a big word). If it can’t it will fail. The only way out of this is for you to go and delete any files that you do not need any more. Then you start this all over again Anyway after everything has gone OK your bar should be nice and blue.
You should do this hard disk fragmentation at least every six months. When you do the check it will say if you need to but I would suggest you do it anyway.
