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DefragmentersWhat is Fragmentation?Did you ever notice that your PC slows down with time? Probably yes. It is true that a computer that has been in use for several months is usually slower than a computer with a freshly installed operation system. Although there are various factors that cause this slowdown one of the major contributing factors is file fragmentation. Fragmentation is the process by which the files stored on your hard disk gets scattered all over the hard disk and split into various pieces. The more scattered and the more split these files are the more time Windows takes to look for them. As a result the computer becomes slower to respond than a computer whose files are properly sorted out. Therefore the more files you copy, move and delete on your hard disk, the more fragmetation increases. This also cases "holes" in the file structure of your hard disk, holes that are too small to be filled with data and therefore consume your hard disk space. What are Defragmenters?Luckily there are tools called defragmenters, defragmentation tools or simply defrag tools that rearrange the files on your hard disk so as to reduce fragmentation. Some of these tools are free like the "Disk Defragmenter" that comes with Windows. The drawback to these free utilities is that they usually take a long time to carry out the full defragmentation process, depending on the size of your hard disk and the available free space. When you run a free defragmenter it is usually recommended that you stop using your computer during the defragmentation process and to disable your screen saver. Otherwise the defrag process might restart continuously and never finish the process. This might not be such an issue on most recent Windows versions but it was a significant issue on the free disk defragmenter that came with Windows 98. Irrespective of whether you opt for a free or a paid defragmentation tool, you should defragment your PC on a regular basis to reverse the process of fragmentation. Although not as important as checking for viruses and spyware running a disk defragmenter should be part of your scheduled computer maintenance routines. No disk defragmenter can do its job properly if there isn't sufficient space on a hard disk for the defragmenter to work. So before running a hard disk defragmenter you should check that it has at least 10% or so of free hard disk space. Anyway a disk defragmetor will usually tell you that it cannot operate properly unless you increase the available hard disk space. Use NTFS and not FATThe NTFS file system is less prone to fragmentation than the FAT file system. For this purpose it is always recommended to use NTFS unless absolutely necessary. If you are still using Windows 95, Windows 98 or Windows ME then you are stuck with FAT as these older versions of Windows do not support NTFS. Windows NT, Windows 200, Windows XP or Windows Vista support NTFS. To check if your hard disk partitions are using FAT or NTFS on Windows 2000 or Windows XP go to Start | Control Panel | Administrative Tools | Computer Management | Disk Management. On the left hand side of the screen you can see the partition info including whether the partitions are using FAT or NTFS. There is no need to reformat your hard disk to convert from FAT to NTFS. All you need to do is go to Start | Run, type "cmd" and press "OK". In the command prompt type "convert drive_letter: /fs:ntfs" where drive_letter is the letter of the partition that you want to convert (in most cases c:). Then press "Enter" and wait for the conversion process to complete. Please beware of the following very important points:
If you are running the Linux operating system on your PC then you should not have any problems with fragmentation. Linux partitions (ext2, ext3) work differently from FAT and NTFS partitions and do not suffer from fragmentation. Recommended Free DefragmentersThe free Windows Disk Defragmenter is usually adequate in most cases. Other free defragmenters that are worth trying out are the following: IOBit SmartDefrag Recommended Paid DefragmentersPaid defragmenters are faster, more efficient and provide more functionality than basic free defragmenters. The following paid defragmenters are recommended: DiskeeperPerfectdisk 7.0 
O&O Defrag 10 Professional Edition
Nova Disk Accelerator Pro
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