After Windows NT has been running for a while the disk becomes fragmented. This means that blocks of files are scattered over the disk rather than being stored in a contiguous range. When a fragmented file is accessed the disk spends a lot of time searching for the blocks rather than reading data, slowing the whole system down. Use a defragmentation tool to reorganize the disk and realize an immediate performance improvement.

Although a standard facility within Windows 95 and Windows 98, there has never been a defragmentation utility supplied as part of Windows NT. Windows 2000 however has such software included, in the form of Executive Software's Diskeeper Lite product. Diskeeper Lite does work for earlier versions of NT. If you are still using Windows NT4 and would like to try out a defragmentation utility then Diskeeper Lite is available on a free trial basis at http://www.execsoft-europe.com/downloads/diskeeper/dkfree.htm for European users. The Executive Software web site has sections for all geographical regions accessible at http://www.execsoft.com/coverpage.asp.