On the Tools tab, click Defragment Now, then click Defragment. Select the local disk volume you want to defragment by right-clicking it, then selecting Properties.ģ. When the process is complete, the Disk Defragmenter window will show that your drive no longer requires defragmenting.ġ. Progress will be shown as a percentage in the same window.ĥ. If your disk needs defragmenting, click Defragment disk. A drive with 10 percent or more fragmentation should be defragmented.Ĥ. This will check whether your disk requires defragmenting. The Disk Defragmenter dialog box will appear. The Administrative Tools window will appear.ģ. Click Control Panel, then System and Security. Click the Start button in the bottom left corner. Once complete, a status screen will appear with the current status reading OK.ġ. You can still use your computer while this process is running, but try to limit activity.Ĥ. This will launch the defragmentation process.
We at Webopedia recommend defragging overnight and turning off any energy-saving features you may have enabled.ġ. If you have energy-saving features active, such as a screensaver, this could cause the defragmenter to stop and start all over again. You can follow the question or vote as helpful, but you cannot reply to this thread.
How to defrag a hard driveĭisk defragmentation may take several minutes or a few hours to finish, depending on the size and degree of fragmentation of your hard disk. This allows the drive to find open portions and write new information faster. This is entirely invisible to the user, but it can slow down the speed at which data is accessed because the disk drive must search through different parts of the disk to put together a single file then open it for your use.īy defragmenting a hard drive, the computer consolidates all the information for a file in one continuous area of the drive. Fragmentation occurs naturally when you use a disk frequently by doing basic tasks like creating, deleting, and modifying files.Īt some point, the operating system needs to store parts of a file in noncontiguous clusters. Table of Contentsįragmentation describes the condition of your hard disk drive when files are divided into pieces and scattered around the disk. It’s designed to increase data access speed by rearranging files stored on a disk to occupy adjacent storage locations. The Microsoft Disk Optimizer (formerly the Disk Defragmenter) works to optimize fragmented files on the hard disk drive.
All Windows operating systems come with tools to help keep your computer running in top shape.