Poll: How often do you defragment and clean up the hard disk of your computer? Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
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This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "How often do you defragment and clean up the hard disk of your computer?".
This poll was originally submitted by Manuela Junghans
View the poll here
A forum topic will appear each time a new po... See more This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "How often do you defragment and clean up the hard disk of your computer?".
This poll was originally submitted by Manuela Junghans
View the poll here
A forum topic will appear each time a new poll is run. For more information, see: http://proz.com/topic/33629 ▲ Collapse
| | | | Anthony Baldwin 
United States
Local time: 15:52
Portuguese to English
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I use linux, which automagically maintains the hard drive, without my intervention. Fragmentation is not an issue.
| | | | | Scheduled for once a week | Sep 15, 2006 |
I have scheduled these tasks and they take place automatically every Friday evening. Of course, sometimes my computer isn't on, so it doesn't always get done once a week. That's probably more often than necessary, anyway.
| | | | Reed James
Chile
Local time: 15:52
Member (2005)
Spanish to English
| TuneUp Utilities 2006 | Sep 15, 2006 |
I always get impatient when I attempt to defragment the hard drive...so I never do it! However, I have TuneUp Utilities set to "clean" my computer every Friday afternoon when I am out.
It fixes the registry, erases temporary files and a few other useful tasks.
Reed
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Balasubramaniam L.
India
Local time: 01:22
Member (2006)
English to Hindi
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SITE LOCALIZER | I follow the rule "dig a well when you are thirsty" | Sep 15, 2006 |
In other words, I never do it, or do it only when I just cannot avoid it. Or when the computer itself suggests that I do it to release up space. This happens rarely for I have an 80 GB hard disk, large parts of which are empty at all times.
The few times I have done defrag, I have not noticed any marked improvement in performance. And it takes an awfully long time to complete it and I get impatient.
| | | | | Linux here too | Sep 15, 2006 |
Anthony Baldwin wrote:
I use linux, which automagically maintains the hard drive, without my intervention. Fragmentation is not an issue.
The same with my system
Anni
[Edited at 2006-09-15 06:41]
| | | | | Clean up once a year | Sep 15, 2006 |
Once a year I clean up my hard disk, i.e. remove useless files, rearrange directories, suppress old e-mails and faxes, etc. It's not that I need to free space, but sometimes I get quite messy...
But since I have this computer (4 years), I haven't defragmented it - I'm not very eager to do it so I tend to trust Windows when the dialog box tells me that my computer doesn't need defrag. Let's touch wood and hope that it goes on like that until I need a new computer ... See more Once a year I clean up my hard disk, i.e. remove useless files, rearrange directories, suppress old e-mails and faxes, etc. It's not that I need to free space, but sometimes I get quite messy...
But since I have this computer (4 years), I haven't defragmented it - I'm not very eager to do it so I tend to trust Windows when the dialog box tells me that my computer doesn't need defrag. Let's touch wood and hope that it goes on like that until I need a new computer
Marie-Céline ▲ Collapse
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(Win XP) But whatever you do, after a while there will be junk that slows down the PC. And I have never seen much difference after defragmenting disks that were heavily fragmented or cleaning up GBs of useless files, even with dedicated maintenance tools.
What really makes a difference is reformatting the whole system partition. I do it once a year and it's like having a new computer. I usually allow myself two days for this task and plan well in advance with to-do lists (backing up this a... See more (Win XP) But whatever you do, after a while there will be junk that slows down the PC. And I have never seen much difference after defragmenting disks that were heavily fragmented or cleaning up GBs of useless files, even with dedicated maintenance tools.
What really makes a difference is reformatting the whole system partition. I do it once a year and it's like having a new computer. I usually allow myself two days for this task and plan well in advance with to-do lists (backing up this and that, saving such settings, check availability of the software source, etc.) in order to get almost exactly the same environment as before and resume work with as little difference as possible, except increased speed.
Philippe ▲ Collapse
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| format the C partition every couple of months | Sep 15, 2006 |
I usually end up reformatting and doing a clean install of XP every couple of months.
| | | | PAS
Local time: 21:52
Polish to English
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| For the impatient types | Sep 15, 2006 |
About once a month is enough to defragment your drive, but surely you can set it to run when you eat dinner, watch TV (gasp!) or go out to a movie. No need wait for defragmentation while you work.
Pawel Skalinski
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I can't translate the Danish comment we used to make...
(Time-wasting for nerds) - the innuendo and tone of voice just don't come over. Something like watching paint dry!
I do delete about 20 e-mails a day, none of them spam, but things like 'OK, have a nice weekend', KudoZ that I'm not following up... offers from Trados and others hoping I'll spend money on their products...
I sort out the... See more I can't translate the Danish comment we used to make...
(Time-wasting for nerds) - the innuendo and tone of voice just don't come over. Something like watching paint dry!
I do delete about 20 e-mails a day, none of them spam, but things like 'OK, have a nice weekend', KudoZ that I'm not following up... offers from Trados and others hoping I'll spend money on their products...
I sort out the day's jobs into a folder called 'Work completed' where relevant and take backups on a memory chip of work in progress before I close down.
Then once a month I delete several hundred other mails and save the rest in relevant places. I always have mails from four to six weeks back in the mailbox, should I need to refer to them.... but need very few of them.
I rarely have time to do more, but occasionally I go through my terminology folder and dream about setting some of the files up in Multiterm. Then a mail comes in or the phone rings, and it's back to work!
I could of course set the thing to defrag while I cook supper, the way I do a scan once in a while, but I'm terrified it will lose something in the process.
My motto is: If it ain't broke, don't fix it
A Windows Security update disconnected my printer last summer, and for a month I had to use the backup computer AND the tiny backup printer just to get a copy for proofing... before I convinced my guru it was not my fault
(When he saw on the Net that others had the same problem, it took him just minutes to fix it !)
Someone might expect me to tidy up my bookshelf next!
Then I'd never see half my dictionaries again
[Edited at 2006-09-15 15:09] ▲ Collapse
| | | | Sandra C.
France
Local time: 21:52
English to French
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I have a Mac, so this doesn't really apply. I am very tidy though and never keep unnecessary mails, docs, internet cache and history, etc.
One thing I do about once a week is to repair the disk permissions, but that's mainly because I'm a gamer and that, sometimes, "conflicts" can arise within my computer...
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Rebecca Garber
Local time: 15:52
Member (2005)
German to English
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Nifty program, easy, does everything while I'm off doing something else.
Every Monday morning I set it loose.
| | | | Manuela Junghans
Germany
Local time: 21:52
Member (2004)
English to German
+ ...
| Thanks everyone | Sep 15, 2006 |
for your valuable input.
The reason for suggesting this poll was that it has been pointed out to me that defragmenting / cleaning up the HDD is something I should do VERY regularly since it would make a big difference in the working speed of the laptop.
But fortunately (or not?) I don´t seem to be the only one being a bit carelss about everything to do with computer maintenance...
Manuela
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