DISABLE QUOTA MANAGEMENT

10-57Lesson 5 Maintaining Disks with Disk Defragmenter, Check Disk, and Disk Cleanup

Lesson 5: Maintaining Disks with Disk Defragmenter,

Check Disk, and Disk Cleanup

Windows XP Professional saves files and folders in the first available space on a hard

disk and not necessarily in an area of contiguous space. The parts of the files and fold-

ers are scattered over the hard disk rather than being in a contiguous area. This scat-

tering of files and folders across a hard disk is known as fragmentation. When your

hard disk contains numerous fragmented files and folders, your computer takes longer

to access them because it requires several additional disk reads to collect the various

pieces. Creating new files and folders also takes longer because the available free

space on the hard disk is scattered. Your computer must save a new file or folder in

various locations on the hard disk.

Temporary files, Internet cache files, and unnecessary programs also take up space on

your computer’s hard drive. Sometimes there are file system errors, and sometimes sec-

tors on your hard disk go bad, which can cause you to lose data that you have stored

on your hard disk. This lesson introduces three Windows XP Professional tools—Disk

Defragmenter, Check Disk, and Disk Cleanup—that help you organize your hard

disks, recover readable information from damaged areas on your hard disk, and clean

up any temporary files and unnecessary programs taking up space on your hard drive.

After this lesson, you will be able to■

Use Disk Defragmenter to organize your hard disks

■

Use Check Disk to search for and repair file system errors and to recover readable infor-

mation from bad sectors

■

Use Disk Cleanup to remove unnecessary files from your hard disks

Estimated lesson time: 60 minutes

How to Analyze and Defragment Disks with Disk Defragmenter

The process of finding and consolidating fragmented files and folders is called defrag-

menting. Disk Defragmenter locates fragmented files and folders, and then defrag-

ments them by moving the pieces of each file or folder to one location so that each

occupies a single contiguous space on the hard disk. Consequently, your system can

access and save files and folders more efficiently. By consolidating files and folders,

Disk Defragmenter also consolidates free space, making it less likely that new files will

be fragmented. Disk Defragmenter can defragment FAT, FAT32, and NTFS volumes.

You access Disk Defragmenter by selecting Start, pointing to All Programs, pointing to

Accessories, pointing to System Tools, and then clicking Disk Defragmenter. The Disk

Defragmenter dialog box is split into three areas, as shown in Figure 10-21.

F10us21

Figure 10-21

Use Disk Defragmenter to defragment a volume.

The upper portion of the dialog box lists the volumes that you can analyze and defrag-

ment. The middle portion provides a graphic representation of how fragmented the

selected volume is. The lower portion provides a dynamic representation of the vol-

ume that continuously updates during defragmentation. The display colors indicate the

condition of the volume as follows:

■

Red indicates fragmented files.

■

Blue indicates contiguous (nonfragmented) files.

■

Green indicates system files, which Disk Defragmenter cannot move.

■

White indicates free space on the volume.

By comparing the Analysis Display band to the Defragmentation Display band during

and after defragmentation, you can easily see the improvement in the volume.

You can also open Disk Defragmenter by selecting a drive you want to defragment in

Windows Explorer or My Computer. On the File menu, click Properties, click the Tools

tab, and click Defragment Now. Then select one of the options described in Table 10-6.

Table 10-6

Disk Defragmenter Options

Option Description

Analyze Click this button to analyze the disk for fragmentation. After the analysis, the

Analysis Display band provides a graphic representation of how fragmented the

volume is.

Defragment Click this button to defragment the disk. Defragmenting automatically performs

an analysis. After defragmentation, the Defragmentation Display band provides a

graphic representation of the defragmented volume. Additionally, you can view

a report showing files that could not be defragmented.