Whenever I try to open files and start programs on my PC, the computer starts spinning away and make a lot of noise. It always takes me a very long time to get things started. What can I do to quiet down my computer and make it run faster?
Two things that can cause a slow, noisey computer are a fragmented hard drive and a lack RAM. Most of the time, hard drive fragmentation can be solved buy running a Windows system utility called Disk Defragmenter. A lack of sufficient RAM however, will require you to upgrade your hardware.
Hard drive fragmentation
Hard drive fragmentation refers to the state of a disk that’s endured a significant amount of usage over a period of time, causing its data to be stored in a non-contiguous manner. An overly fragmented hard drive makes your computer work overtime on any tasks that involve reading to and writing from the hard drive.
Lack of memory
Computers use RAM (Random Access Memory, also referred to as memory) to manage the files and applications that you are actively working with. If you don’t have enough RAM to supply the memory demands of the tasks you’re working on, your computer will suffer a slowdown.
A computer uses RAM to manage your active tasks because RAM is very fast short-term storage medium. Random Access Memory comes in the form of small chips, and operates via electrical signals rather than moving parts. Hard disk storage is another type of hardware that stores data, but hard drives operate much slower than RAM and are better suited for long-term data storage. Hard drives consist of magnetic surfaces that operate via moving parts. Consequentially, RAM is more expensive than hard disk space, and computers come with exponentially more hard disk space than RAM.
When a computer does not have enough RAM to efficiently manage the files and applications that you are working with, the computer begins to use hard drive space to store the “overflow” of data that’s unable to be kept in RAM. The system will attempt to keep the most frequently used bits of data in RAM and store the rest on the hard drive, but eventually there will be a lot of back-and-forth between the RAM and the hard drive. Since RAM memory is much faster than a hard drive, a delay in communication will begin to build and your system will suffer slowdown.
What you can do
When your computer starts chugging along every time you perform a task, the slowness may be caused by a combination of a fragmented hard drive and a lack of memory. The sound you hear and the slowness you experience is the result of your computer substituting hard drive space for memory, and working overtime to read and write data to and from that hard drive. To speed up your computer’s performance, you should defragment your hard drive and speed up your computer by adding more memory.
Editor’s note: hard drives that make excessive noise such as grinding or clicking may also be trying to tell you that they won’t last much longer. A hard disk, like everything else, has a finite lifespan. If you suspect that your problems are bigger than just a sluggish PC, you should back up your files and have the system checked out by a professional.
[tags]hard drive,memory,storage,fragementation,defrag,performance[/tags]
