Data stored to internal hard drive of Windows PC is not always stored together, but it may be stored to different clusters. In other words, when you write a file to internal hard drive on your computer, a part of the file might be stored at the begging of the hard drive, while the rest part of the file might be stored at the end of the hard drive. Along with more and more files being written to the hard drive, it produces lots of fragments. Too many fragments on a hard drive might lead your computer to run slowly because system spends time retrieving the fragments from the whole hard drive.
This article shares free methods to defragment hard drive on Windows computer.
Every Windows operating system has built-in defragmentation tool, which makes it easy for hard disk defragmenting on any Windows computer. For all Windows platforms including Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8 and 10, you can run Windows Defrag tool for partition defragmenting by following the guide below:
Step1. Open My Computer (or This PC on Windows 10). Right click the partition you want to defragment and select Properties.
Step2. Click Tools tab and then click Defragment Now button.
Step3. Click Analyze button to analyze the selected partition to show
whether you need to defragment it or not.
Step4. Click Defragmentto defrag the selected partition.
Pay attention:
1. Do not write data to the partition during defragmenting.
2. Do not frequently defrag hard disk partition. If it says there is no need to perform defragment after analyzing, you had better not defrag the selected partition.
For different versions of Windows OS, it has some different methods to launch Windows Defrag tool to defrag hard drive.
If your PC runs Windows XP operating system, you can run Windows defrag utility to defragment hard drive by following the steps below:
Step1. Click Start button > Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Disk Defragmenter
Step2. Select the drive you want to defrag and click Analyze button to see if the partition needs to be defragmented.
Step3. Click Defragment
To run Defrag tool on Windows Vista or Windows 7 for partition defragment, please follow the steps below:
Step1. Open Control Panel and select System and Security
Step2. Click Defragment Your Hard Drive
Step3. Select the drive you want to defrag and select Analyze disk to analyze to see if it needs to be defragmented.
Step4. Once the analysis is completed, click Defragment disk to defrag the disk.
On Windows 8 or Windows 1, you can start defrag utility to defrag hard drive by following the guide below:
Step1. Open Control Panel and select System and Security
Step2. Click Defragment Your Hard Drive
Step3. Select the drive you want to defrag and select Analyze disk
Step4. Click Optimize
In addition to Windows defrag utility, you can also run Command Line to defragment hard drive on your computer.
Follow the guide below to defragment hard disk partition with Command Line:
Step1. Open Command Line on your computer
==> Related Article: How to run Command Prompt>>
Step2. Type defrag.exe x: /a to analyze if the partition needs to be defragmented (x refers to the drive letter of the partition you want to defrag, e.g. defrag c:/a).
Step3. Choose an option for partition defragmenting.
==> To get more detailed steps to defrag hard drive from Command Prompt, please go to this page – Defragment hard drive from command prompt>>
You can use a free
partition tool to defragment disk partition on Windows. IM-Magic Partition Resizer is a
freeware which has the ability to defrag any disk by following the guide below:
Step1. Right click the partition you want to defragment and select "Defragment" option.
Step2. Confirm to defrag the selected partition.
==> To get more details, please visit this article – How to defragment hard disk
For Windows 10/8/7/Vista/XP/2000 ==> Download IM-Magic Partition Resizer Free
For Windows Server All versions ==> Download IM-Magic Partition Resizer Server