You've probably heard the word "defrag" before when talking to your resident computer nut. If you ask 5 different technology whizzes about it, you'll probably get 5 different answers about its effectiveness.

So what does "defrag" mean?

"Defrag" is short for "defragment," which gives you a bit of a clue as to what it does.

Think of your computer hard drive like a local bookstore. As people purchase books, holes appear on the shelves. Now imagine that as the storekeeper receives new shipments of books, he fills the holes on the shelves AS HE FINDS THEM instead of reorganizing the existing books (to fill the holes) and then putting the new ones into the appropriate section of the store. Eventually what you get is a mess of a bookstore, with books scattered everywhere.

As you use your computer, this is what is happening with your hard drive. By deleting files from your computer, you are creating holes or spaces where new data can go. The only problem is that the holes are all different shapes and sizes. So when you go to save that new document you have been working on, some of it gets put in one spot and the rest gets put somewhere else.

This leads us to the question, "Why should I care about all of this defragging stuff? Does it really matter?"

Let's go back to our story about the bookstore...

One day you walk into our bookstore and ask the storekeeper to help you find the new book on real estate investing. The storekeeper says, "Sure, I know I saw it come in. Let me go find it for you. It shouldn't take more than a few HOURS."

This is EXACTLY why you should care about defragging.

As your computer ages, the hard drive becomes more and more fragmented. Data is scattered everywhere. The more scattered it is the longer it will take to find anything.

Being that time is one of your most valuable assets, regularly defragging your hard drive will reorganize all of your data and help your computer run more quickly. If you have never defragged your computer, you will probably see quite an improvement in your computer's speed after the first defrag.

If you use Microsoft Windows XP, you will find the defrag program by clicking on Start-->All Programs-->Accessories-->System Tools-->Disk Defragmenter.

If you are running a Mac or use Linux, you don't have to worry about defragmenting your disk, because it is pretty much done behind the scenes for you.

Defragmenting your hard drive every few months will save you time and money and is a fast and easy way to make sure your computer runs as quickly as it can for as long as possible.

Regularly defragging your hard drive (every 3 months or so) will help to keep your computer running more quickly and will help you get more done in less time. Run the defrag program at night so that it is done by the time you start working in the morning.