I like a little proggie called
Power Defrag. From the software description:
" Power Defrag is a system utility that improves the performance of the Windows disk, checking utilities and the disk defragmenter. By restarting your machine in a highly optimized configuration, Power Defrag decreases the amount of time taken to perform these tasks by a considerable amount. The disk checking and defragmenting utilities supplied with Windows can also lock your computer up under certain conditions. Power Defrag eliminates this problem in many cases."