| People store more information on their hard | | | | operating system does a good job of organizing |
| drives than ever before. It's simple, consumers | | | | this data. However, its not a perfect system. As |
| demand more space and the hard drives | | | | a result, the data you add often is placed in an |
| companies have responded by producing massive | | | | inefficient locations on the drive. This is known as |
| 500 GB drives that are fast enough to spin at | | | | fragmentation. So, you must take steps to defrag |
| speeds of 10,000 RPM. However, large high | | | | the data to fix hard drive poor performance |
| performance hard drives require more | | | | problems. If you have registry errors, you may |
| maintenance than smaller ones. | | | | need to clean them to organize your hard drive |
| Let's take a look at how your hard drive is | | | | efficiently. The defragment may cluster error filled |
| structured. The hard consist of a series of circular | | | | registry data with clean data in your registry |
| tracks called disks. Each section of a disk is split | | | | which can cause hard drive sluggishness. |
| up into pie shaped sections called sectors. These | | | | How to defragment: |
| sectors store data magnetically. You may have | | | | 1. Open the "Start" Menu |
| seen errors that indicate errors in sector X or Y. | | | | 2. Click on "Computer" |
| These occur when the electrical motor sends the | | | | 3. Right Click your C: drive or your hard drive |
| central spindle to a section of the disk that cannot | | | | image. |
| be read. In this case, you may be able to fix hard | | | | 4. Scroll down to the "Properties" Click |
| drive errors to allow the section to be read. This | | | | 5. In the Properties Menus, Open the "Tools" |
| article hopes to aid you when you need to an | | | | menu. |
| easy way to fix hard drive problems. | | | | 6. Choose "Defragment Now". |
| Project #1 Check Your Hard Drives Health | | | | 7. In the Disk Deframenter menu. Click on |
| An easy way to find out how to fix hard drive | | | | "Defragment" |
| failure is to run the CHKDSK, Check Disk, utility. | | | | Project #3 Take Out the Trash |
| This is a Windows application that allows you to | | | | Now that your files are in order and you have |
| scan your hard drive for errors. Often using this | | | | enabled your computer to fix hard drive errors, |
| utility alone will allow you to fix hard drive | | | | its time to clean up your newly defragmented |
| problems and restore the hard drive to its peak | | | | data. All files are stored in one or more places on |
| performance. This works by marking error zones | | | | your hard drive. Old version of this data is often |
| and instructing your computer to skip over or | | | | compressed and stashed away. However, when |
| repair them. Here is how: | | | | your computer or registry needs a file its must |
| 1. Open the "Computer" folder. | | | | locate all version of the file. This makes the ability |
| 2. Select your hard drive, right click the hard drive | | | | to fix hard drive slowness more difficult. |
| icon. | | | | However, Microsoft has developed a wonderful |
| 3. Choose "Properties". | | | | tool that allows you to clean up unnecessary |
| 4. Click the "Tools" tab. | | | | compressed and temporary data. In turn, allowing |
| 5. Click the "Check Now" button. | | | | you to clean and fix hard drive slowness cause by |
| 6. For a thorough repair click "Automatically fix file | | | | inefficient data. |
| system errors" and "Scan for and attempt | | | | Here is how: |
| recovery of bad sectors" | | | | 1.Click "Start" |
| 7. If you see new dialog window, click "Schedule | | | | 2. Choose "Programs" |
| disk check" to start. | | | | 3. Open "Accessories" |
| You should run this utility every 3 months in order | | | | 4. Choose "System Tools" |
| to fix hard drive errors and avoid slow down of | | | | 5. Click "Disk Cleanup". |
| your hard drive. | | | | All in all, these few steps should allow you to fix |
| Project #2 Organize Fragmented Data | | | | hard drive problems and speed up the |
| The next order of business is to fix hard drive | | | | performance of Windows. When it comes to hard |
| problems by organizing the data on your hard | | | | drive, "the bigger the better" is the name of the |
| drive. You load an mountain of data onto your | | | | game. However, "with great power comes great |
| hard drive every time you use Windows. Your | | | | responsibility" can also be applied. |