THE TRUTH ABOUT SLOW-RUNNING COMPUTERS

Is your computer running slower than it use to? Does it take forever to start up and shut down? Do you have to wait longer and longer for your programs to load? JOIN THE CLUB!

This has either happened to you, is happening to you, or is going to happen to you. It’s not a matter of if.   It’s a matter of when.

The very thing that makes Windows powerful and versatile is also the thing that over time leads to system degradation. Therefore over time Windows will get slower and slower. Then some applications will run unacceptably slow or not run at all. It will then be followed by lockups and the dreaded Blue Screen of Death. Eventually Windows will not load at all.

??? What To Do ???

THE BANDAID – You can hire someone to do some Cleanup, check for viruses and malware, defrag, etc. More often than not, it’s a waste of money and only a short term solution.

THE RIP-OFF - You can purchase or subscribe to one of these advertised “speed up your computer” deals. These self-fix-it programs are a total waste of money.

THE SOLUTION – You can have your system RENEWED or put back to Store-bought condition. This involves saving all of your data (documents, pictures, music, etc). Reloading Windows from scratch with all updates and updated hardware drivers. Then reinstalling your major applications and restoring your data. For insurance, a backup of your complete system can be made so at a later date you can restore it.

THE TRUTH ABOUT TURNING OFF YOU COMPUTER AT NIGHT

Turn off your computer at night! The main reason is that when your computer is turned on again, a fresh copy of Windows reloads. This adds to the time that Windows will run before needing to be reinstalled. Also, many device driver errors are corrected with a fresh restart.

In the 80's I would not turn off my computers at night. This was because the hardware technology was less reliable and often it took minutes to hours for my systems to stabilize. Also, my systems ran hotter then than my systems today and their life was reduced by going from cold to hot to cold. Today, hardware is much more reliable and less susceptible to errors due to power cycling.

THE TRUTH ABOUT DEFRAGING

Most people are aware that there are thousands of files on their computer.  These consist of Windows system files, application files, and user data files (documents, photos, music, etc).  But just where these files are located on your hard drive is up to Windows.  The fact is that many files are actually broken up into several pieces on the hard drive.  As time goes on, more and more files are broken into pieces of fragments.  The more fragmented a file becomes, the longer It takes to retrieve the complete file when it is needed. 

Defraging is the process of reorganizing the files on the hard drive so that fragmented files are identified and are moved to a location on the drive that will accommodate the file in its entirety without being fragmented.

??? Is it beneficial to defrag Daily, Weekly, Monthly ???

THE OLD DAYS (80'S and early 90'S) -  When hard drives first became a standard part in our PC's, they were physically larger, had a much smaller capacity, and were much slower than today's drives. Couple that with slower controllers, CPUs, and memory, we could see dramatic improvement in the speed of our systems after defraging compared to before being defraged.  In fact, I had some of my systems set up to defrag the hard drive each time the system was powered on.

TODAY -  Things are a bit different today.  The hard drives today run much faster and are many times larger.  The controllers in the hard drives contain cache memory that hold multiple tracks of read data. So the bottom line is that there is a lot less to be gained performance wise by defraging.

CONCLUSION - Although theoretically there are performance gains by defraging, it's doubtful if you will really notice any difference in speed in most applications.  Couple this with the fact that loss of power during a defrag could cause you to lose data or more.  Theoretical performance gain verses the risk of data loss changes the picture today.  So if it makes you feel good to know your file are in a more orderly state and you like the pretty little boxes moving around while defraging, defrag two or three times a year.

P.S. -  When I do defrag, I use the free Defraggler utility from Piriform.