How To Defragment Your Hard Drive

Reader Question:
“Hi Wally, can you tell me how to defragment my hard drive?” - Melanie C., Australia

Before addressing any computer issue, I always recommend scanning and repairing any underlying problems affecting your PC health and performance:

Step 1 : Download PC Repair & Optimizer Tool (WinThruster for Win 10, 8, 7, Vista, XP and 2000 – Microsoft Gold Certified).
Step 2 : Click “Start Scan” to find Windows registry issues that could be causing PC problems.
Step 3 : Click “Repair All” to fix all issues.

Setting up weekly (or daily) automatic scans will help prevent system problems and keep your PC running fast and trouble-free.

Wally’s Answer:

Why You Should Defragment Your Hard Drive

One of the most important computer maintenance activities is defragmentation. It is very crucial to defragment a computer on a regular basis to ensure that it runs at its optimum efficiency. So, when does fragmentation occur?

Fragmentation happens when your personal computer cannot allocate its space effectively. When your computer runs out of space to accommodate files, Windows will then split the files in various places in your computer’s hard disk in order to allocate enough space for them. And in the event that your hard drive is cluttered with fragmented files, it will result in slow and sluggish performance on your personal computer.

Computers with lots of fragmented files tend to start up slow and programs take too much time too long and would experience some crashes here and there. This will give the user problems especially when he or she direly needs to finish a computer job therefore it is very crucial to perform disk defragmentation on a regular basis to ensure that the computer is free from any fragmentation and would run in full efficiency.

Defragment Your Hard Drive: Tips & Tricks

Most people use the “C: Drive” to store their programs and files. Thus, the C: Drive is the usual disk drive in a person’s computer to lack storage, resulting in slow and sluggish computer performance. To counter such problems in the future, regular defragmentation of your hard drive is a must.

Due to consistent use, this disk drive is usually the one that needs to be defragmented first. To do this, you can seek help from a good disk defragmenting tool. There are lots of disks defragmenting tools available in the market that can thoroughly scan your PC’s hard drive and sort out any issues that shroud your computer’s slow performance.

Here’s how you properly do hard drive defragmentation:

Defragmentation Tip 1: Close All Other Programs

Startup your Windows-based computer. Do not launch any program or software while defragmenting since that program or software won’t be relocated while therefore the defragmentation won’t be 100% effective.

Defragmentation Tip 2: Go To Safe Mode

It is also recommended to go to Safe Mode for the defragmentation process. Defragmenting while in Safe Mode will enable you to prevent any programs that are unnecessary thus giving you successful and effective defragmentation.

Defragmentation Tip 3: Don’t Defrag Too Often

Do not overdo the defragmentation of your hard drive. There’s no exact time frame in when is the right time to defrag a hard drive but doing it too regularly can affect your system. Too much defragging can also cause your hard drive to not operate efficiently in the future.

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Is Your PC Healthy?

I always recommend to my readers to regularly use a trusted registry cleaner and optimizer such as WinThruster or CCleaner. Many problems that you encounter can be attributed to a corrupt and bloated registry.

Happy Computing!

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Wally PhillipsWindows Wally is a helpful guy. It’s just in his nature. It’s why he started a blog in the first place. He heard over and over how hard it was to find simple, plain-English solutions to Windows troubleshooting problems on the Internet. Enter: Windows Wally. Ask away, and he will answer.