How to Speed up My Computer?

By: Matthew Kingsly Click author's name for more of his/her articles

That's simple. Defrag your hard drive.
People are always looking for new ways to increase the speed of their computer. Aside from taking your PC to a computer repair shop, there is a very simple and essentially free way to put your computer on the road to running at its once youthful speed. What I am talking about is defragmenting your hard drive. I would like to first start out by talking about fragmentation itself.

What is Fragmentation? What causes it?
Fragmentation is caused when your operating system has to break a file into smaller pieces, because there is not enough room to store that file in just one local. Consider this illustration. Imagine your hard drive as having a bunch of little boxes. An unfragmented hard-drive would look like this -
1 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 3 3 3 3 4 4 4 4
But lets say that you deleted file 2. Then your hard drive would look like this
1 1 1 1 3 3 3 3 4 4 4 4
If you were to save a new file that was twice as large as the original file, your hard drive would look like this
1 1 1 1 5 5 5 5 3 3 3 3 4 4 4 4 5 5 5 5

Your operating system would then take note of where the different parts of the file are stored, via a File Allocation Table (FAT). When you desired to open that file again, your FAT would be queried to search for the location of the different parts of the file. Of course, since the different parts of the file are located in different areas of the drive, your FAT will take a longer time to find the file and ultimately open it. The fragmentation of your hard drive can get infinitely more complicated than my illustration, which can cause your computer to be painfully sluggish. This is the main reason why a fragmented hard drive poses problems to your computer's performance.

So what does the defragmentation process do?
Defragmentation is generally known as the process of scanning the file system and rejoining the split files back into consecutive pieces. Once all the files are back in order, when queried, your FAT can find the file much quicker, thus increasing the speed with which your computer operates. This is definitely one of the easiest ways to increase the performance of your PC.

How do I defrag my hard drive?
Operating systems like Windows come with a defragmentation system built in. That does not mean that it will run automatically; you must still activate the defragmentation process (in Vista) through the disk defragmenter found by typing 'defrag' into your 'start search' bar. This is located by clicking on the Window's window in the lower left-hand portion on your screen.

Why is my computer still slow?
If your computer is still slow after defragging your hard drive call Rocket PC. No one knows Orange County Computer Repair like Rocket PC. Rocket PC offers free consultation on how to increase the performance of your computer, and what type of computer to buy when the time comes. Furthermore, Rocket PC offers computer repair at half the price of that geeky national computer repair chain, and they have a 'no fix, no pay' policy, not to mention a free diagnostic on nearly all repairs. Their service and prices are unmatched by any Orange County computer repair company. Rocket PC is your source for Orange County computer repair and Orange County Computer Services.