Hi readers, I hope you had a great week! This post is part 4 on how to tune-up, clean, and optimize your computer on your own. As you may know, having a professional optimize your computer can cost $100-$400.
You can save your self tons of dough by taking my advice and following the instructions as provided.
The steps I show you are exactly what a professional like me would do to optimize your computer and tune it up. Some professionals wouldn’t even do as much as I would. Some technicians may just do a disk cleanup, defragment, and call it a day. Now you just pay big bucks for a half ass job.
On with the next step in tuning-up, cleaning, and optimizing your computer.
The next step is called a disk defragment.
In a nutshell; A disk defragment will move all your files closer together so your computer will think faster. All the files on your computer are fragmented into groups. The further away each file or group is, the longer it will take your computer to do things. From opening folders to starting programs, disk defragment is very important to keep your computer on its toes and thinking as fast as possible.
First, go to your “start button“. Click on “all programs“, then “accessories“, then “system tools“, then “disk defragment“.
Now your disk defragment screen will pop up. Choose which hard drive you want to defragment. Most people have only one hard drive. But, if you happen to have more than one, choose the one you want to defrag.
If you have more than one hard drive, I suggest cleaning all your hard drives using the steps I have provided to optimize and clean your computer, for the best possible performance.
Now click the “defragment” button on the bottom of the screen.
When your computer starts to defragment it will show you two progress bars. The progress bar on the top shows estimated disk usage before defrag is complete. The progress bar on the bottom shows the disk usage after the defragment. You will see your computer progress in percentage on the bottom of the screen.
There is a legend that tells you what each color stands for. The red lines are fragmented files that will be put back where they belong. The blue lines are contiguous files that will also be put back where they belong. The green marks are usually wider than just a line and cannot be moved back as they are permanent files or unmovable files. Don’t worry everyone has a few green bars, this is very normal.
The white spaces are free spaces being wasted. When your computer is done deframenting the hard drive, the free spaces will be less, so your computer can scan each file faster each time it is asked to do something.
Note; These progress bars will both constantly change as your computer defrags the files closer together. As you can see, the free spaces in between the files towards the right are a lot further away than the files on the left. When your computer is done defragging, all the files will be moved over to the left and as close as possible without free spaces in between. Your files will be moved in such an order so that your computer will think faster whenever you ask it to do something.
When your computer is finished defragmenting all your files, you will notice a pop up box that will let you view report or close the program. I usually save the view report in to notepad until my next defragment, but this is totally optional. You don’t have to do this. You can just click the “close” button and close the program.
I recommend restarting your computer at this point, but it is optional.
That concludes this part of tune-ups, cleaning, and optimizing your computer. See you tomorrow for part 5, the final part of optimizing your computer.
If you have any questions at all, just email me.
rc@rchubb.com
