DEFRAGMENTATION

What is de-fragmentation...?
Lets first understand what fragmentation is...lets say you have a closet and you keep stuffing things into it just at random...you do this everyday.now after,say,a month you need to find something...it goes without saying that you 'll end up searching for a long time.
Something similar happens when we store data on our system, HD to be precise...all softwares,images,videos,games,etc etc...that we store on the HD is slotted int random sectors( small cubicles where data is stored )...now data is not stored in a random manner,it may end up in any sector on the hard disk, and so when the HD tries to read this data it ends up spending quite some time( relatively speaking )...in other words data is FRAGMENTATED...and this reduces the performance of the system
This brings us to the process of de-fragmentation.What defragmentation does is brings all the data (atleast as much is possible),together,in continuous pattern...this reduces search time...and improves system performance

HOW TO DE-FRAGMENT?
1. There are many third party softwares available in the market that can be used for de-fragmentation , but you can use the windows built-in utility program called Disk defragmenter. Before starting this utility,make sure all running programs are closed
2. To run disk defragmenter utility, go to START and type dfrg.msc in RUN option.Now here a disk defragmenter window will appear.Select any drive and press defragment button.The time rquired by the process depends upon the size of your HD.
3. Another way is...right click on the "My computer" icon and select 'manage'. A window titled 'Computer management' will appear.Select storage and in it ther is an option called 'disk defragmenter'....the utility is very easy to use
4. It is advisable to go through this process every month or so...it will improve the overall performance of your system.

Please note that defragmentation can be done only if atleast 15% of your HD is free