Defragmenting your hard drive should be a routine task and carried out every month. Windows XP writes files to the the hard drive in such a way that it does not check whether the complete file can be put on the hard drive in such a way that all the file remains together. Instead it starts writing a file only to realise there is not enough space there for the full file, so moves on to the next available space This means that one file can be split up across the hard drive called fragmented files, thus adding extra load on hard drives and slowing down system performance.
Windows Xp has an inbuilt tool called a defragmenter to gather the contents of each file and ensure they are not fragmented. Whilst the inbuilt tool is very basic compared to other products like Raxco's excellent Perfect Disk, the free inbuilt tool is still better than nothing. To run the inbuilt "defragger" navigate to:
Start>All Programs>Accessories>System Tools>Disk Defragmenter
When the Disk Defragmenter program starts, highlight the drive you want to defragment, then click the "Defragment" tab.. This sets the computer defraging files, you should leave your computer alone until Disk Defragment has finished.
(note: Raxco's Perfect Disc is available on a 30 Day free trial, i recommend you download and run that. You can run it after XP's inbuilt one has completed defragmenting to see the difference and you will see why i recommend this rather than the inbuilt tool)
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