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What is Defragging?

Defragging is process done to a hard disk in order to improve performance and recover some lost disk space. Defragging is an essential part of a PC’s upkeep as it keeps all the data on your hard disk in an easily readable order. If a hard disk is left without defragging, then over time the disk will begin to lose performance and also slowly reduce the available capacity to data. As you will be aware if your hard disk is running slowly then this will affect the rest of the system performance, in all applications and especially in games, where frame rate is important.

How does Defragging improve performance?

When you defrag your hard disk you re-arrange the order in which the data is stored on the drive. The PC will arrange the data so that data that belongs together and needs to be read together is actually put in the same place on the drive. The obvious question here is why doesn’t the PC store the data in the correct way in the first place? In an ideal situation (such as a blank disk) the PC would do these as a first option. However with the amount of data being deleted and wrote to the disk every second the PC is on it is no wonder that the data cannot be stored together.

Lets have a look at an example. Say you write 3 files to a disk all 10Mb in size the data would be all in a line each 10mb block after the other. This is how your PC would prefer to store the data for maximum performance. It stands to reason that this is how you would like it to be stored as well if you needed to search for the data. But now lets say that you decide to delete the middle file as its no longer any use to you. You now have a gap inbetween your files.

Lets say this time you write a file of 15mb in size. This file will be written in the first 10Mb of space and the remaining 5Mb added to the backend of the free space.As you can imagine with the millions of files being written to and deleted from the disk each day, not to mention the temporary files that windows uses on a frequent basis its not hard to imagine the state in which your hard disk can be in after months of use. After a defrag in this simple example your PC would re-arrange the disk to look as follows.

When files or indeed groups of files that belong together are stores next to each other the PC has a much easier time locating the data plus the disk heads don’t have to travel to different parts of the disk to retrieve the data required. This of course speeds up the disks performance and so in turn increases overall system performance. There are of course levels of performance gains. It becomes more negligible as you move to faster hard disks with large memory buffers to compensate for file fragmentation however I would not ignore the problem of fragmentation, it doesn’t take much effort to defrag your disk now and then

How does defragging increase disk space?

Simply put defragging doesn’t really create any free space on your hard disk. It may appear when you look at the graphics that defrag programs show you, that the disk looks like it has more space, but all you are doing is moving data about not removing any. Any disk space gain is negligible and is caused when the defrag program puts together half clusters of data. Clusters can hold a number of files, but if not filled the next file is started at the next cluster. If a file is broken into pieces around the disk and defrag can put the file back into a single cluster, or just save a cluster somewhere a small amount of space will be released.

Advanced Defragging

Some defragging software can go a little beyond just sorting your files so they are all together. Programs such as Norton Speed Disk can also sort your entire sets of files and programs into the order that they are used. For example it can be set so that your windows swap file is at the fastest part of the disk, followed by games and most used applications which also need the fastest part of the hard disk., Then documents etc and rarely used application can be put to the back of the disk., This gives the priority speed access to the applications that need it most. Again this may only be a small increase in performance but every little helps.

Software to use for Defragging

You will be pleased to know that Windows comes with an adequate defrag program which everyone can use. There are also some other pieces of software out there for a more specific use. Norton Speed disk is one option on the market which comes as part of Norton Utilities and Norton Systemworks. Doing a search on Defrag software on your favourite search engine will give you some options of free to use and pay for software.

Stephen Orgill
Editor - http://www.pantherproducts.co.uk
Computer related articles and reviews.

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You have spent lots of money and time on getting a good camera and taking lots of pictures. Now they are safely loaded onto your computer they need no further attention, right?

Wrong!

Your memories are precious. They are part of you and your
world. They are for sharing and reminiscing over. They capture moments in time
and can never be replaced. They catalogue what makes you tick and how you
relate to others. For you, they have irreplaceable sentimental value.

For some, your images may be commercially valuable. Photos
are always required by stock photo agencies and you may have invested a lot of
time and effort into getting that important picture which could earn you a
small fortune.

But, your images are still in danger and you need to act
NOW to protect them. Thousands of people lose their memories every day, despite
how well they look after them. Make sure it isn’t you.

How are
images lost?

Accidental
deletion: it is so
easy to press the “delete” key when you wanted to press the “open” key

Computer crashes: your computer WILL crash. It
doesn’t matter if it has always given you good service or if it is brand new.
It will,at some point, crash, losing the contents of the hard drive

Loss or theft: despite how careful you think you
are, computers are a target for thieves. They are easily sold and represent
quick bucks for criminals. Believe it or not, people even lose laptops on
public transport!

A catastrophe: if your house burns down, your
computer goes with it. The same dangers arise with floods or any other form of
accidental damage.

A virus: you are always at risk of
catching a virus. This may or may not be harmful but some viruses can wreak
havoc on your hard disk

Obsolete media: much of your work may be held on
old floppy discs, computer tapes, old CDs. Media changes with time or become
unsupported.

Online storage unavailable: either you
have mislaid your login information or your online provider no longer exists

One thing is for certain, once something happens to
destroy your images, you will suddenly realise how important they were to you.
Trust me, I know, because it happened to me. Pictures of my family and friends
were lost. And my dear relative, friends and animals that are no longer with
me. And those precious moments - celebrations, parties, holidays.

The best advice is to not use your computer as the sole
storage medium for your images.

You should additionally:

- print them and store them securely in an archival
system

- subscribe to an online storage facility

or

- back them up either on DVDs or CDs or on a removable
hard drive

Don’t let your images become vulnerable to loss or damage.
Take action now to protect your valuable memories and secure your images
forever.

Eric Hartwell is an experienced photographer and owner of the photography resource website ephotocentral

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When people buy computers, for either business or personal use, the need to prepare for data loss is perhaps the last thing on anyone’s mind. We probably don’t believe that anything could go wrong until it is too late.

Data loss could be a devastating blow to anyone. On the business front, it could, within minutes send a small business from active and operating to ‘out of business’. In addition, on personal grounds, you could loss weeks, months or even years of very valuable data, with very slim chance of ever re-creating it.

Data loss could occur because of whole lot of things, whether you accidentally delete data or software that is very important to your business or you suffer a computer crash due to a power surge or an electrical storm. Possibly your computer got an overdose of viruses, spyware and adware and couldn’t hold up anymore. Whatever the cause, if you aren’t prepared, it could mean that all your valuable data is gone for ever.

There are a whole bunch of data recovery programs that you will find very helpful in the event of such problems occurring. When you have a quality data recovery program on your computer, you needn’t be really bothered about losing vital data, even when these unavoidable things happen, once in a while. Data recovery programs give you the confidence that your business or personal information is always safe and there is always something to fall back on in the case of data loss.

It is amazing that many people do not know about or use these data recovery programs, probably because they don’t realize their importance. It takes only minutes to have data recovery software installed on your computer and you won’t have to bother about maintenance, it really takes care of itself. The price? Most of these programs are not overly expensive; you will find out that they are more affordable than you probably think. I am sure that the price is worth the safety of your vital data. It is never too expensive to safeguard your personal or business information

Besides having good data recovery software running on your computer, there are a couple of things you can do regularly to keep your personal or business information safe from loss or recoverable in the event of an unavoidable loss.

The first advice is to always back up your data. Do this routinely, and if you can get a program to do it automatically, like most data recovery programs do, so much the better. To be absolutely sure, back up even your back ups and always have a current back up offsite, just in case of worst case situations.

Secondly, if you will have to leave your home for a considerable length of time, it is advisable to ensure that all electronics are plugged into a UPS, powered down and unplugged from A.C., if possible. You never can tell what will happen before you return home.

Thirdly, whenever you hear strange sounds, or observe unusual functioning of your computer, which could be a sign of a pending hard disk crash or some other computer problems, switch off your computer and go see a repair specialist immediately.

However, we never can be too safe; in the event of an unavoidable data loss, it is better to go see a data recovery specialist immediately as trying to recover data yourself could only worsen an already bad situation.

The bottom line here is that, although emergencies occur that sometimes are unavoidable, you can still be in control and be ready for all eventualities.

——————————————————-
Michael Russell
Your Independent guide to Data Recovery
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