Does your PC regularly act sluggish and take a lot of time to open up the folders in the system? This can be due to a number of reasons. While it may be that your PC is just low on resources, it may also be that you have too many unused files in your hard disk. A hard disk full of files will always perform in a sluggish manner. So, if you clean up some of the unused files, chances are that your hard disk will perform a lot better.
There are a number of ways in which you can clean up your hard disk from the clutter of unused files. You can use the disk defragmenter, disk cleanup, or the chkdsk utility. All of these are quite effective. Let’s have a look at these one by one, shall we?
Disk Defragmenter – If you have been using your PC for a long time, chances are that you have stored a lot of files in those. In time, portions of a file may get scattered to different memory addresses all over the disk. You won’t see it; the process is not visible to the user. However, Windows® knows it and fetches all parts of the file from the various memory addresses when you try to open it. The problem is that if you have a lot of files in your PC, this fetching can take what may seem like ages. The defragmenter puts the pieces of a file in adjacent memory addresses, thus making the fetching process simpler and consequently faster. You can start the defragmenter by clicking the Start button, followed by clicking Accessories, System Tools, and finally Disk Defragmenter. After that simply select a drive from the list and run it. Once it is finished, repeat the process with the other drives.
Disk Clean Up – This utility of Windows® allows you to clean up the unnecessary files piling up in your hard disk. These files include temporary internet files, old temporary files and unused log files. It is surprising how much space these files can occupy in the long run. In order to clean up a partition in your hard disk, right click on the icon of the partition in My Computer. Choose Properties and in the box that opens up, click the button named “Disk Cleanup”.
Chkdsk – This is the Check Disk utility, which can fix minor errors in your files, file system and even on your hard disk platters. This makes your PC run at least 8%-10% faster. In order to run the utility, right click on any partition in My Computer and choose properties. Then choose the Tools tab and click on the button “Check Now”. Check both the boxes and click on Start. If the drive contains your operating system, then the disk check may not run immediately. Don’t worry, it will run when you restart your PC.
Disk cleanup operations are important to maintain a hard disk in good shape. These checks should be performed at least once a week, especially if you store a lot of files in your hard disk.
