How to Defragment a Hard Drive in Windows

Defragmenting a hard drive can speed up your computer. As your computer gradually accumulates more data, the physical location of the information becomes scattered all over the hard drive. Defragmenting a hard drive gathers together data from similar files, allowing the time it takes to access these files to decrease, making for a faster computer. Here's how to defragment a hard drive in Windows.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• A PC computer

1. 
    
   Open up

   Starting from your PC's desktop, find "My Computer" (on Windows XP), or "Computer". Open "My Computer", and a window with your various drives should be displayed. You must find your hard drive, usually the C: drive, in order to defragment a hard drive in Windows.

2. 
    

   Next, right click on your primary hard drive (usually your C: drive). Most say "Local Disk" to indicate a hard drive. Right click on the hard drive you wish to defragment and click "Properties". A window should pop up.

3. Next, click the "Tools" tab. In the middle of the screen, there should be a button that says "Defragment Now". Click it. This is the Windows Defragmentation tool that allows you to defragment a hard drive in Windows.

4. The Windows Disk Defragmentor should open. Click "Analyze" to determine whether or not you need to defragment. Click "Defragment" to begin defragmentation and speed up your computer. The process to defragment a hard drive in Windows takes from 15 minutes to over an hour to complete, depending on how big your hard drive is, and how fast your computer is.