Defragment Your Hard Drive in Windows Vista

Let’s first orient those who may not be familiar with how a hard drive works. A hard drive has a magnetic platter that spins while an arm needles information onto the surface. It can be viewed as a simplistic vinyl turntable. The circular platform spins and information gets magnetically “etched” onto the surface. The rings of information segment into sectors. These sectors can be overwritten with new information, but can also become corrupted. While writing over certain data, fragments may be left behind that need to be cleaned. The process of cleaning this data is called defragmenting the hard drive. 

1. Click the Start Menu.
2. Select All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Disk Defragmenter.
3. The Disk Defragmenter screen offers a scheduling time. Modify the Schedule if the time does not suit your tastes. I usually run the Disk Defragmenter in the early morning hours while the computer sits dormant.

You can choose to run Disk Defragmenter now if you know it hasn't been done in a while, or just wait for the next scheduled time.

After completing these steps, you’ve setup to clean your hard drive’s sectors of any fragments. This simple activity can increase the speed of your hard drive and ensure future data saves do not become corrupted.