When you

install a program

to a clean

hard drive, the program files

will be laid out in a

contiguous order

. Over time, the files may be moved around and become noncontiguous, which is what you're fixing when you

defragment your hard drive

. We explain more about

file contiguity

in this tutorial.

When your

computer writes data

to the hard drive, the data is sometimes written out of order, or fragmented. In order to

speed up your hard drive

, you can do something called

defragmenting your hard drive

. We'll explain both

fragmentation and defragmentation

in this episode.

Defragmenting is a common process used to keep

computers running efficiently

and is part of

routine computer maintenance

. That being said, you might not know

what defragmentation means

. In this tutorial, we'll tell you

what fragmentation is

and explain

how defragmenting helps computers

work faster.

There are a number of ways to maintain your computer. One way is to find a good utility program for each thing you want to do — remove junk files, clean the Registry, defragment drives in Windows 7 and the like — or you can find a good program that does all the things you need in an easy-to-use suite. This week, Doc going to look at three cool programs that do just that.)

Upgrading from Windows Vista to Windows 7

will be much easier if you install to a defragmented hard drive. Defragmenting means pulling your data that's scattered across the physical drive into a logical and clean structure. Take the time to defragment your drive and your upgrade from Windows Vista to Windows 7 will be a smooth and simple process.

The process of

upgrading from Windows Vista to Windows 7

will be much smoother if you're installing to a drive that's clean, defragmented and free of junk and other extra files. The less Windows has to move in the upgrade from Windows Vista to Windows 7, the less likelihood of something going wrong.

In her unending quest to find the best tools to keep your PC running smoothly, Cheryl Poirer came across Uniblue DiskRescue. DiskRescue gets a spot in her PC toolbox because it is easy to use, simple and gives an ailing PC a new lease on life.

TuneUp Utilities 2009 keeps your Windows-based PC running smoothly, can improve start-up time and just generally keeps things in order. And we all know that an organized computer is a happy computer.

Your PC is a lot like a car. If you keep it tuned up and clean it will run well. Let it get junked up, miss scheduled maintenance appointments generally don't look after it, it will slow down. TuneUp Utilities 2009 acts like a PC mechanic and clears out the junk.

Don't let the time your computer sits idle go to waste! Put it to good use by scheduling automated tasks, perform maintenance, open documents, launch programs and even brew a hot pot of coffee. OK, maybe not the coffee.

Ask just about any techie friend for advice on fixing a computer that's running slow and one of the first things he or she will likely tell you is to "defragment" your hard drive. This is the equivalent of spring cleaning for your hard drive.
Diskeeper 2008 will keep it defragmented automatically!

To keep your computer running at peak efficiency you need to keep the Registry clean and compact. RegistryBooster 2009 does an amazing job of doing just that.

Just like your car, your computer needs scheduled maintenance in order to run smoothly. If your PC doesn't seem as fast as it once did perhaps it needs a tuneup. The appropriately named TuneUp Utilities 2008 can help.