Judy Honaker
Cleanup Your Computer
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Clean Up Your Computer
Disk Cleanup and Defragmenting Your Hard Drive
Before you defrag your hard disk drive, you should run Disk Cleanup.
If your hard disk is relatively full, it is a good idea to run Disk Cleanup before attempting
to defragment a drive. Defragmentation of a hard disk drive takes a lot of empty space
and the Disk Cleanup feature will help.
To defrag your computer on a Windows XP platform, follow the step-by-step instructions
in this tutorial.
Step 1: Launch the Disk Cleanup Tool
Click on Start --> Programs --> Accessories--> System Tools
Select the drive you want to cleanup:
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Cleanup Your Computer
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The computer will begin to compress files and free up space.
Allow the computer to perform the disk cleanup.
Upon completion of Disk Cleanup, you will see a dialog box similar to the one below.
Click OK, and Click Yes when prompted do you want to delete the old temporary files.
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Cleanup Your Computer
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Step 2: Launch the Defragmenter Tool
Start --> Programs --> Accessories --> System Tools
You can also find the Disk Defragmenter option by double-clicking My Computer, rightclicking any hard disk drive, clicking Properties and selecting the Tools tab.
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The resulting display will list your hard disk drives, showing the capacity and amount of
free space for each.
STEP 3:
Select the drive you want to defragment and click Analyze.
The drive is scanned and a visual representation of the degree to which it is fragmented
displayed.
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Cleanup Your Computer
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Depending on the results of the analysis, you will be advised as to whether of not the
volume should be defragmented.Even if it's not strictly necessary, you can choose to
Defragment.
The length of time the defragmentation takes will depend on the size of the drive, the
degree to which it's fragmented and the amount of free space it has. Be prepared to to
allow it to run for several hours, if necessary.
The dialogue box will indicate when the process is complete.
and will give a visual representation of the now defragmented drive.
When it is done, the data on your hard drive will be stored more efficiently, and
programs that work together are stored together. This means faster access times to
your programs and your files, and better performance overall. If you have never
defragged your hard drive, we strongly encourage you to do so -- it cannot hurt, and it
could improve your computer's performance significantly. Be patient, it just takes time.