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Even if you just defragmented your hard disk today, it still probably
needs to be defragmented again. A hard disk is not fully defragmented
until it takes less than 5 minutes to defragment it.
How do I defragment my hard disk?
First be sure there are no
programs running.
1) Click on the START button.
2) Click on Programs
3) Click on Accessories
4) Click on System Tools
5) Click on Disk Defragmenter
6) Follow the prompts on the
screen to defragment you hard disk(s).
IMPORTANT: Even if
Windows says you do not need to defragment, tell it to defragment your
hard disk(s) anyway. The Windows defragmenter does not accurately detect
when a large hard disks needs to be defragmented.
IMPORTANT: If it takes longer
than 5 minutes to defragment your hard drive, run the defragmenter again
(and again if needed). Sometime it has to be run several times in a row
in order for a complete defragmenting job to be done.
If you use the internet, you
may need to defragment your hard disk weekly. Because web browsers are
constantly writing and erasing files, internet use rapidly creates fragmented
files.
A
common question: My
computer will not defragment. It acts like it is running and goes up to
1% (this could be 2%, 5%, 10%, whatever) and then it restarts. What do
I do?
If the defragmenter runs for
a while, then starts over again at the beginning, this means you have
a program running. All other programs must be shut down, or the defragmenter
may never finish.
Push the CTRL, ALT
and DEL keys at the same time, and then let them all go at the
same time. This will display the task manager. Only two things should
be running - EXPLORER and SYSTRAY. If any other programs are running,
use the "End Task" feature to shut them down. Then start the
defragmenter and defragment your hard disk.
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Defragmenting your hard drive
reorganizes all of the data so that the computer can more easily locate
it and run faster. The bad news is that this can take some time: it can
take from several minutes (for computers with very little data on the
drive) to several hours (for computers with large drives or that haven’t
been defragmented in several months.) The good news is that it usually
runs without the need for user intervention, so you can let it run while
you are out or asleep.
You should defragment your
drive about once a month.
Like Scandisk,
Disk Defragmenter will need exclusive use of your computer, meaning that
all non-essential programs should be closed. It is best to run Scandisk
before defragmenting not only to check for file or system problems, but
also because you will have already have shut down these programs. The
instructions on how to do this are in scandisk.
It is also best to clean your
system of temporary folders and files and EMPTY YOUR RECYCLE BIN before
defragmenting. This will create more hard drive space and speed up the
process since you won't be moving unneccessary files on the PC.
Start 
Programs
Accessories
System Tools
Disk Defragmenter
Select the drive you would
like to defragment and click OK. The C: drive is the only one most people
will have to worry about.
Disk Defragmenter will take
some time to finish, so use the appropriate buttons if you need to exit
early or pause it temporarily. You can click "Show Details"
to see a more visual representation of the progress.
Do not rely on the progress
bar for a time of completion as it does not represent this. It shows how
much of the drive itself is done and some parts of the drive may be more
fragmented than others.
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