Defragmenting Your Hard Drive
What is Defragmenting?
Defragmenting, or defragging, is rearranging the data on your hard drive so it is easier to find and more continuous. This can speed up the performance of your computer. If the files on your hard drive are badly fragmented, then the computer will run slowly and your hard drive will "cycle" or access, often and for long periods of time. To fix this problem, (especially on Windows ME, where a fragged hard drive can cause crashes and freezes), defrag your hard drive.
Defragging in Windows XP
Windows XP is the simplest system to defrag. Simply go to Start->All Programs->Accessories->System Tools->Disk Defragmenter. This will open up the Disk Defragger, as I like to call it. Select the hard drive you want to defragment (probably C:) and click Analyze. Windows XP will run an analysis of the drive and tell you whether it needs defragging or not. Even if it doesn't need it, you may want to do it anyway. Once the analysis is complete, a pictorial diagram of the hard drive's contents will be displayed. If you see a lot of red bars, it is a good idea to defrag. Simply click "Defragment" and sit back for an hour or so, and Windows will defrag the hard drive. When it is done, it will notify you with a dialog box.
Defragging Windows 98
Defragging Windows 98 is a little tricky. The program is easily interfered with, and even a screensaver or virus scanner will make it completely restart and never finish defragging. So here are the steps to defrag a hard drive under Windows 98.
Turn off your screensaver. Right click on the desktop, select Properties, and then go to the Screensaver tab. Under the screensaver type, select [None]. This will turn off the screensaver.
Reboot into safe mode. To do this, restart your computer, and just before the Windows logo comes up, press F8 repeatedly until a boot menu appears. Select "Safe Mode" and press enter. The computer will spew some gibberish and then boot into safe mode.
Go to Start->Programs->Accessories->System Tools->Disk Defragmenter. Select Options and deselect the box that says "Check disk for errors before defragmenting." This will stop anything weird from giving the computer problems.
Select drive C: or whichever hard drive you want to defragment, and then click start. Also ensure your virus scanner is not running.
Check the computer periodically to ensure it hasn't restarted multiple times. If it never seems to finish, you may want to try a third party defragmenter.
Reboot your computer into Normal mode when the defragging finishes.