Analyze and Defragment

[Haggis]

I have been told this helps with computer performance but have no idea what I am doing, can anyone put this in really simple terms for a computer idiot like me? Thanks

[scotman]

Which operating system does your computer run?

[Haggis]

Not even sure what that means, is that Windows 7 Home Premium?

[scotman]

Well Win 7 is an operating system so that is probably what you have. Is your computer quite new?

[Haggis]

Aye, it's about 1.5yrs old. I found the Windows info somewhere so that is what I have.

[scotman]

Unfortunately I only know up to Win XP but I am sure that someone else will pick this thread up and advise about Win 7.

[Haggis]

Ok, Thanks Scotman

[MarkRae]

In which case, your hard drive's primary partition (almost certainly what you know as the C:\ drive) will be formatted using NTFS rather than FAT. Fragmentation is built into the way NTFS works, so defragging will make (next to) no difference whatsoever. As soon as the process ends and you start using the computer again, it will fragment again...

[Haggis]

Hey Mark, Are you saying that there is no point at all in using the defrag thingy?

[MarkRae]

Yes I am. Although it's set to run in the background, any speed increase you might experience will be minimal and (almost certainly) imperceptible.

[Haggis]

Fair enough, thanks for that because it has had me wondering what it is all about for quite a while!