Best software for defragging your computer
By Phil Hornshaw
Keeping your computer running cleanly and moving fast is a matter of maintenance. There are a lot of software systems that are always working on your computer, but with which you’ll never interact, and often, before you know it, something has gone wrong that you never knew could have been a problem.
Hard drive fragmentation can be like that. Defragging sounds a bit weird, but it’s really just an organizational step: When you defrag your hard drive, you’re making sure all the portions of a file are stored together, rather than spread out around your hard drive and therefore slower to access.
Just about every computer comes with on-board defragging software, but it’s not always the quickest or most reliable. There are some other software solutions out there that can help make your computer run faster, though.
Speed things up
If you’ve got a reliable software maker that also offers defragging software, you might want to go with what you know. But if you’re in the market for something useful, start with Auslogics Disk Defrag. The software has garnered a five-star rating from software review site CNET, which is a pretty good barometer when you’re trying to find something reliable.
The cool thing about Auslogics’ software is that it’s well-balanced for both the advanced and the beginner user. If you want something that’s angled more toward a no-knowledge computer user, though, you might want to try the Norton software suites. They might hog up your computer’s resources, but they’re handy if you want an always-on, hands-off solution that will take care of the heavy lifting for you automatically. Plus, Symantec’s Norton products are available with as much as 15 percent cash back.
Whatever software you choose, it’s worth it to look around for trustworthy reviews, and it’s usually better to try to find something you’ll need to purchase rather than grab something that’s free from the Internet. Free software, at the least, comes with downloadable add-ons that can slow things up even more, or change the way things on your computer work, such as your web browser. Finding affordable, trustworthy software is cheaper in the long run.
