The single most important thing you can learn to do with your computer is to properly maintain it. A properly maintained computer will prove itself to be reliable work and play tool that will save you headaches, frustration and in the long term - money.

MT3 (Maintenance Tip 3) - Defragmenting your Hard Drive

Defragmenting your hard drive will allow your computer to startup and shutdown quicker and your programs to open and run faster.

All versions of Windows have a built in Disk Defragmentation program that can be found by clicking on your Start Button > Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Disk Defragmenter.

Defragment your hard drive once per week. As an FYI the first time you do this it may take up to an hour. If you Defragment your hard drive consistently it will take less time to do as time goes on.

*Although the built in Windows Defragmenter will do the job we strongly recommend purchasing Diskeeper 8 Professional as it takes only a ¼ of the time and will give a much greater performance increase to your system.

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