Laptops have an advantage over desktops in this area because they have a built-in battery backup that can kick in if the computer loses power through an outlet.
However, if the laptop battery fails or runs out of power, it can cause file corruption, making it an additional risk for the laptop. You can minimize your risk of a power loss problem with a laptop by running the defragmentation process while the laptop is connected to a wall outlet and has a charged battery. In the traditional sense, a hard drive crash means that the reader head has physically crashed into the disk platter and broken the drive.
Laptops are mobile and have a greater risk of being dropped, bumped or generally abused than a stationary desktop computer. Hard drive reader heads on laptops are set to dock themselves away from the disk platter whenever they detect turbulence, but it doesn't always work fast enough to prevent a crash.
If the hard drive is bumped while the reader head is parked, there's little damage risk; however, when a laptop is running a defragmentation, the head will be actively moving around and at a high crash risk from impact. This is similar to what happens over time to the data on your hard drive.
Everything gets moved around and separated or fragmented and your computer has to work harder to find everything it needs.
When you finish doing the laundry, you usually sort your clothing back into organized piles so they can go back into your closet or dresser. When you defrag your hard drive, your computer is doing something similar. Disk Defragmenter in Windows rearranges fragmented data so your disks and drives can work more efficiently.
Disk Defragmenter runs on a schedule, but you can also analyze and defragment your disks and drives manually. To do this, follow these steps:. Open Disk Defragmenter by clicking the Start button. In the search box, type Disk Defragmenter , and then, in the list of results, click Disk Defragmenter.
To determine if the disk needs to be defragmented or not, click Analyze disk. If you're prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation. Once Windows is finished analyzing the disk, you can check the percentage of fragmentation on the disk in the Last Run column. Click Defragment disk. He is a web developer for a communications company and previously worked in television. By Dan Stone. Does Block Size Affect Fragmentation?
Defragmentation Organizes Files The term defragment refers to rearranging file segments on a storage device in contiguous order so the file is no longer fragmented. Benefits for Hard Disk Drives If your computer's running slower than normal, you might be able to speed things back up by defragmenting that hard drive.
Configure Defragmentation Intervals Windows can run hard drive defragmentation in the background so that it's unnoticeable. Related Articles.
0コメント