what is defrag and how does it help your computer? I tried to defrag once and after a HOUR it wasnt even ½ done! is there any point to it

helps system run faster,if you install & uninstall continuously it helps to do defrag, defrag will long depending on how big your hard drive is and how fast or slow of a processor you have.

Also it will defrag better and faster if you remove running programs by using ctrl-alt-del.

When your OS is writing to the HD it can't always put the entire file in continuous sectors. So it ends up putting parts of it here and there. So when the OS is reading the file it has to skip all over the place to find all the parts. Defrag organizes the files in a more continuous manner, speeding up file access and reducing HD wear and tear.

http://surecool.com/W95x-MeDefrag.zip you can replace defrag.exe with this one from winme it is much faster and more reliable.in c:\windows you should run defrag about every two weeks for better performance and less lockups/hangs it moves files to the beginning of the drive for faster access.

Fragmentation is caused by your computer writing part of a file in one place and part of it in another place. The more you open and close files, the more fragmented they become. Let's put it in very simplistic terms. If you file consists of 10 pieces tied together, but the computer finds a spot with 5 pieces, it will break your file into two 5 piece pieces and put half in that spot and half in another. As you call the file back up, it puts the file back together, but not necessarily in the same places again, leading to further breakdowns. In the mean time, if you have a lot of disk caching going on, you can accumulate severe fragmentation of the disk...disk caching occurs when you don't have enough memory and the computer needs it and so uses the hard disk as what is called VIRTUAL MEMORY. This means it takes a part of your hard disk and uses it like memory...Then you go and dump your internet cache or system cache to clean things up and this leaves big gaping holes in the hard disk. The gapes are then filled in with new files and fragments and this leads once again to even more fragmentation. So you can see, a disk can quickly become a garbage dump, all mixed up like a soup. So now, the computer is asked to find a file and it must search all over the disk to put a file back together...doing this causes more SEEK time and therefore slows the computer down. Eventually, however, a file can become so fragmented, that the computer looses a piece of it...the file becomes CORRUPTED and you loose it. Ultimately, if this file happens to be a DLL file or some other critical file, it can lead to the catesrophic blue screen of death or even...ultimately, a complete hard disk failure. In this day and age of big computer files and high system OS demands, defragging the disk is even more important than it ever was before. It requires TIME and EFFORT to keep your computer up and running evenly, smoothly and efficiently. I figure I spend at LEAST 25 percent of my time, downloading updates, keeping my virus protection program up to date, my computer scanned...and most of all, keeping my hard disks defragmented... Its just a plain fact of life. And the more stuff you have on your hard disk, the longer it takes to defrag. This is why having more than one hard disk is an advantage. On my computer, I only use C drive for ops files and system OS files. I have two other hard disks where all of my program files reside. This keeps my C drive size down to a minimum and therefore, defrag times are short. Yes, and processor size and memory also affect defrag time. Using CTRL-ALT-DEL, you must select one thing at a time and unload it...but be CAREFUL what you select, as you may not be able to run the computer if you shut off all system resources. Be careful not to shut down the system tray or the desktop or windows explorer. If I were you, I would do a disk cleanup and defrag at LEAST once per week. You might assign this task to the Task Manager and do it while you are sleeping or at work or doing something else rather than boring yourself to death watching it. Look into using Task Manager. Win 98 can activate itself without you even being there.

Jeez, I cant wait to read the book.