Fragmentation does not cause system instablity.

i've been using this for 2 years, free, easy, awesome

http://www.billwinkle.org/rambooster/screenshots.html

Useful article, I've always checked the mem usage if things get bogged down to see if something got left running in memory by accident, but I was unaware of the other items - handles etc.

Fragmentation will cause a system to crash. When fragmentation gets bad the program won't load. Therefore you get a lock up(I.E. Program Crash). Because, windows can't find all the pieces. If bad fragmentation occurs in system files then you get system errors.(I.E. Blue Screens Of Death). Left over bytes occur all the time when something is fragmented normally it is just a deleted file. But, when windows mistakes those left over pieces that are actually part of a program, this means trouble.

Slow downs(fragmented files) leads to crashing(Badly fragmented files creating System and Program Errors). Windows gave up searching because it couldn't find all the pieces. I had a Win98 Aptiva and when my system got over 1.5% fragmented my modem wouldn't load with my ISP.

I never said that you could repair corrupted files by defragmenting a hard drive. Sheesh, come on, please don't put words in my mouth that I never said. But, you can minimize it by maintaining your hard drive through regular system maintenance. When windows loses certain bytes from a file, the file becomes corrupted. How does this happen? Answer: Windows cannot find all the pieces. They are spread out all over your fragmented hard drive. I.E. file becomes corrupted. This is why it is suggested that you defrag your system before installing a new program. Because the program won't be spread out all over a fragmented hard drive, and thereby possibly corrupting a newly installed program. But, there are many other ways to corrupt a file too. Viruses are another way.

So, there becomes other important ways to keep Windows stable.

1) Keeping your viruses definitions up to date. And running a full system scan for viruses. And, keeping auto protect on to prevent new viruses. Check all downloads for viruses. And, never open a email attachment from someone that you don't trust or know.

2) Run Windows Update to keep you protected from new vunerabilites.

3) Defrag your hard drive and perform it regularly.

4) Keep your registry clean of orphans files and badly referenced files. Windows also tends to keep a list of recent files that may longer be present, because you deleted them at some point. I find tons of these old orphan enteries in my registry all the time. If your registry gets corrupted, you can kiss your operating system goodbye.

5) Ocassionally clean your temp internet folder. This will help stop slowdown due to Spyware. Bad accepted cookies and such.

6) If you suspect a recent slowdown is strange, try running a Spyware Eliminator such as Spybot Search and Destroy. It's Free. It also checks your registry for orphans and misplaced references which will definitely slow down a system.

Chas, you are incorrect. Fragmentation does not lead to disk corruption. It will slow down the system certainly but it won't lead to system instability.

Chas, no need to "give up the boat". There are two schools of thought out there (many more, but this affects these two) Defrag or Leave alone. My thoughts are only defrag if other system tools don't fix the problem. There are those who only say defrag if you do a lot of install/uninstall. Who's to say who is right? Well, they both are. It's just you come from different angles to solve the same problem. To each their own!

As for the actual article, thanks Frogboy! This was good info. Running XP and having a lot of fun trying out diffeerent things can make a system run slowly, and knowing a few more angles to try always helps!

Keep up the great work guys!

stable ? Xp is by far the most stable OS next to win 2000 !!

um, it can't get fragmented so badly that it can't find the pieces. it has tables that say where the pieces are.

100% agreement with Brad.