For years now, I’ve helped small business and family computer users with simple things to make their computers work better. This column shares some of the common issues asked by non-techie people, particularly in terms of sluggish computers.

Do Your Programs Take Forever to Load?

Maybe it’ll date me, but I can remember helping folks who had DOS operating systems. When Windows came out, that was huge for many of us.

There’s something that can speed up your computer — and it’s been effective all the way back to those old Windows 3.0 operating systems. It’s called “defragging.” Don’t get scared by the technical terms … read on! I’ll explain in non-technical terms.

What is Disk Defragmentation?

Your computer stores information and programs on something called the hard disk. It usually looks like drive “C” on your personal computer. Let’s say that you’ve installed a software program. Your computer automatically stores the data that is used to make your software program work in the first available space, the next available space and so forth.

To keep it simple, imagine for a moment that you’re planning a dinner that you’ll be hosting on Sunday. It’s Friday and you’ve just finished grocery shopping for the event. When you’re putting the groceries away, you discover that the kitchen pantry is pretty full and it will take some effort to reorganize the pantry to get everything to fit.

You don’t have the spare time to reorganize the pantry, so you put the cans of green beans in the master bedroom upstairs. The bread is placed in a second bedroom. The roaster you bought for the turkey goes into your exercise room. The spices you’ll be using go in the garage. And you put the stuffing in the kids’ playroom.

On Sunday, when it’s time to cook, you find yourself running all over the place to find your groceries. You have to run upstairs, then into the exercise room, race to the garage, dig around through the playroom.

Although all your ingredients are available, it is not efficient to have to run all over the house to find them. Basically, this is what happens when your hard drive gets “defragmented.” Data is broken up into fragments and stored in various “available spaces” on your computer. Your programs work, but they may be slow.

How to “Defrag” Your Hard Drive

To put all the pieces — or ingredients, so to speak — in one place so that your programs run more efficiently, a simple thing to do is to defrag your computer. On a Microsoft operating system, Microsoft has a “system tool” that will help you do that.

Some “Defrag” Tips

If you have a lot of data stored on your computer, the “defrag” process may take several hours. You might want to start the “defrag” process described above at night, before you go to bed and when no one will be using the computer. Keep your computer on all night and let the defrag magic do its thing.

Although many of today’s hard drives are more efficient than older models, it’s still a good idea to “defrag” at least once a month in order to keep your computer operating efficiently. For heavier computer users, defrag once a week.

The “defrag” process is free. You don’t need to buy any software. However, if the above steps seem too challenging, there is software that can help you out. A free software download for defragging your computer is called “Auslogics Disk Defrag.” It’s highly recommended by industry professionals and it’s free. You can read about it and download it from CNET.

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