Is defraging necessary?
in [Windows XP]
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From: Lisa on 13 May 2010 12:31 I was told by a computer repairman that it's not necessary to defrag my laptop. If the hard drive gets full, remove files and always make sure I'm using a virus protection. What are your thoughts?
From: Pegasus [MVP] on 13 May 2010 13:04 "Lisa" <Lisa(a)discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message news:1AA94818-B553-4478-9F58-668B6F68C348(a)microsoft.com... > I was told by a computer repairman that it's not necessary to defrag my > laptop. If the hard drive gets full, remove files and always make sure > I'm > using a virus protection. > What are your thoughts? Occasional defragging is beneficial, e.g. once every two or three months, depending on the level activity. You won't notice any substantial improvement in performace unless your partitions are very heavily fragmented. You should make sure that the amount of free space on each partition is around 20% of capacity or more. Defragging does *not* free up disk space. Yes, you must install virus protection. I have used Microsoft Security Essentials (http://www.microsoft.com/Security_Essentials/) since December last year and have had no problem. It's free.
From: Don Phillipson on 13 May 2010 13:30 "Lisa" <Lisa(a)discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message news:1AA94818-B553-4478-9F58-668B6F68C348(a)microsoft.com... > I was told by a computer repairman that it's not necessary to defrag my > laptop. If the hard drive gets full, remove files and always make sure I'm > using a virus protection. The WinXP DEFRAG app first evaluates fragmentation on a drive, then advises whether defragmentation is needed or not. Ordinary WinXP users can rely on this advice. -- Don Phillipson Carlsbad Springs (Ottawa, Canada)
From: Ken Blake, MVP on 13 May 2010 14:20 On Thu, 13 May 2010 09:31:01 -0700, Lisa <Lisa(a)discussions.microsoft.com> wrote: > I was told by a computer repairman *What* computer repairman? What company is he with? If, for example, he's with the Geek Squad, or any similar big-box store, he probably knows next to nothing and his opinions are worthless. I strongly recommend that you stay far away from such companies. > that it's not necessary to defrag my laptop. It's normally very seldom necessary. You can do it, but you don't have to do it often. > If the hard drive gets full, remove files That's a statement that's next to meaningless. Yes, if your hard drive gets full (or anywhere near full), you have a problem. But simply telling you to remove files without any guidance on what to remove is no real help at all. Moreover, if your hard drive gets near full, removing files is at best a stopgap measure. The problem will return quickly. The only real solution to the problem is to buy a bigger drive. > and always make sure I'm using a virus protection. He got that one right for sure. However, anti-virus programs are far from equal, and which one you choose is very important. Unfortunately the two biggest sellers, Norton and McAfee, are also the two worst products. I recommend eSET NOD32, if you are willing to pay for an anti-virus, and either Avira or Avast, if you want a freeware product. And one more point. Run an anti-virus program, and *also* at least two anti-spyware programs. I recommend MalwareBytes Anti-Malware and SuperAntiSpyware. -- Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP (Windows Desktop Experience) since 2003 Please Reply to the Newsgroup
From: Twayne on 13 May 2010 15:43
In news:1AA94818-B553-4478-9F58-668B6F68C348(a)microsoft.com, Lisa <Lisa(a)discussions.microsoft.com> typed: > I was told by a computer repairman that it's not necessary > to defrag my laptop. If the hard drive gets full, remove > files and always make sure I'm using a virus protection. > What are your thoughts? You don't "have" to defrag a disk. There are some benefits to it but nothing very serious will happen to you in general. It's possible, not likely but depending on what you use it for, for it to slow down your computer. OTOH I do defrags about monthly on most of my drives and when I'm using it, after every session of video editing/rendering. If I don't my computer will come to a screeching near-halt due to the huge, fragmented files on that one very large drive should I continue to work in video. If I wait over two or three sessions to do the defrag, then in this case there is so much work to do that it takes hours to do a defrag. But by doing it after every session it only takes around 20 minutes so I just go on and do something else while it's running or let it run overnight if I'm done for the day. Point is, the worse the fragmentation and the larger the drive, the longer it takes to defrag. Especially if the drive is allowed to get full to the point of only about 15% free space. If free space gets low enough, defrag will cease to be able to work. IMO it's best to defrag periodically. Find a schedule that works for you and doesn't take several hours to run. Start with monthly and the, two, then three, or 3 weeks, whichever way it takes you. Everyone's needs are different. But it is not specifically necessary to run defrag. HTH, Twayne` |