How to Run a Disk Defragmenter in Vista Home

Defragging your hard drive will make your computer run more efficiently.

A fragmented hard drive reduces the performance of your machine. The Windows Vista operating system has an internal disk defragment program that defrags the drive for the operating system. Defragging a hard drive makes the computer faster by placing disk information in an organized manner, so the hard drive retrieves the information more efficiently. Defragging may take a few hours, depending on the size of your hard drive, so it's best to run the Vista disk defragment utility when you do not need to use your machine.

Instructions

1. Click the Vista "Start" menu and select "All Programs." Select "Accessories," choose "System Tools," and select "Disk Defragmenter."

2. Enter the administrator password if you are not logged into the machine as an administrator. This is used to protect users from changing system settings in Vista unless administrator rights are granted on the user account.

3. Choose the drive or drives you would like to defragment and click "Defragment Now" to start the process. The defrag process may take a few hours. A window displays the progress as the defrag procedure runs.

References

• Microsoft: Improve Performance by Defragmenting your Hard Disk