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Fragmentation: the scattering of fragmenting of files on a hard drive
from continually writing, deleting, and resizing them is a major cause of
computer performance degradation.
You know that if a PC or server is slow, it's probably time to do a
defrag. What you may not know, however, is the effect fragmentation has on both
your IT business and those of your clients.
If you have service contacts with clients, for insurance, you lose money
whenever you take a support call. And
many of those calls are for fragmentation-related issues like system slow-downs
or drive failures. Defragging eliminates
those calls - and the resulting truck rolls.
If you have virtualized your clients' servers, you've reduced the number
of physical systems for more efficient CPU utilization. But when you consolidate five servers into
one, you have five times the traffic and five times the fragmentation on that
one server. Routine defragging is
essential for optimizing performance and up-time.
Defragging also provides more up-time by saving machines from excessive hard
drive head activity. This extends
hardware life another one to two years.
And defragging busy file/SQL/Exchange servers increases network traffic
speeds by freezing up I/O bottlenecks.
As for anti-virus scan, if you have one file, you need only one
scan. But with 1000 fragmented files,
you need 1000 scans. Defragging cuts
anti-virus scan times by about half.
Time is also saved during backups and loading Office documents like Word
and Excel. Boot times are quicker if you
defrag the MFT file, and even Web browsing gets a boost with a good defrag of
the Internet cache. It's a simple
numbers game.
A computer is only as fast as its slowest component, and the disk drive
lays claim to that dubious distinction.
So rather than opting for a faster CPU or more memory, go for the least
expensive option and enhance machine performance with a proper
defragmenter. It will free up time for
you and your business, and help put more money on your bottom line.
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