How to defragment a hard drive and improve the performance of the Windows computer? step by step guide

This is a process worth doing if you really want to enjoy a computer with good performance and good speed. This way you will be able to keep your team optimized in the best way but, it should be noted that today technology has been advancing therefore, the new hard drives called SSD they do not have the need to be fragmented like the previous ones mechanical hard drives since this is an action that the computer will perform automatically.

But, when we talk about fragmentation, we mean a rsorting of all data that are inside the hard disk and that this is a process that will serve to be able to improve system performance. That is to say, it is in charge of nullifying the possibilities that the data that is saved remains fragmented on the disk, this as files are stored, rewritten or deletedwhere each of these information packets can be saved in random places which will cause the system to take longer to find it and therefore the process of accessing them will be much slower.

Then, the fragmentation process tells us that all the files are rejoined in one place, which will facilitate the search and therefore will be much faster for the system. Because of this, here we will show you how you are going to be able to carry out this process on your Windows computer.

What does hard drive fragmentation mean and what is it for?

As we mentioned before, this process is basically in charge of canceling all those possibilities that the different information files are stored in random places. These might be programs, data, files or any other information that is recorded inside the drive that ends up taking up a certain amount of space.

This problem also usually occurs when delete any type of file, data or programwhere they end leaving free spaces and therefore, every time a file is requested to be searched, the unit will start to skip all those empty spaces, which will make the search much slower to display the information that is being requested on the screen.

This means that if there is no order in the information stored, the computer will generally work much slower and its performance will not be adequate. perform a defragmentation process It will help you so that all the files can be joined in one place, that is, all the data is going to be compacted so that the windows operating system is going to remove all those empty spaces between the stored fileswhich will help improve the performance and speed of the computer.

Steps to defrag hard drive on your Windows 10/8/7 computer

It is important to mention that Microsoft has incorporated in each of its versions of Windows a tool that allows regroup all files Y scattered data inside the hard drivetaking into account that these data are generally disaggregated and empty spaces are created between them, making the system work much more slowly.

You must bear in mind that the process to carry out this action is usually simple, but the same could last only minutes or hours, This will basically depend on how much information is stored on the hard drive. However, you will be able to use your computer while disk defragmentation is taking place.

According to all this, we are going to teach you what the steps are so that you can carry out this process in the versions of Windows 7, 8 and 10 in a quick and easy way, for this you will only have to follow the steps that we will explain below:

Windows 7

If you are one of the users who still have Windows 7 operating system and you’re thinking about defrag hard drive Here we are going to show you how to perform this procedure step by step:

• To do this, you need to click on “Start”.
• Inside the search box you have to write “Disk Defragmenter” there will appear a list where you have to choose that option.

• now in the “Actual state” you have to select the drive you want to defragment.

• The next thing is to click on “Analyze disk”after a few seconds Windows will start to analyze it and you can check its status in the column of “Last run”.

• And finally you click on “Defragment disk”.

Windows 8

In the event that you are a user who has the version of windows 8 on your computer you will also be able to carry out this process in a similar way to the previous version.

This operating system has the tool microsoft that will allow you being able to analyze and explore what percentage of fragmentation your drive has, if it has a percentage greater than or equal to 10 It is recommended to carry out the process so that your computer can be optimized in the best way.

• To start you need to go to the tab “Start”
• In the search bar you are going to write the following “Optimize and defragment”.
• Once you are in the window “Optimize and defrag” you are going to click on “Setting” and there you will see the option “Defragment and optimize drives.”
• All the units of your team will appear there, which you will be able to analyze, in such a way that you only have to choose the one that interests you the most.
• Now you just have to click on “Analyze”.
• Once you are clear that you are going to carry out the process on that unit, you only have to click on “Optimize” The scan will automatically start and all free spaces that exist within the drive will be corrected.

Is Microsoft tool for Windows 8 presents several good things, since it will also allow you to optimize some programs in a weekly or monthly, like the units. Therefore, this will allow you to have good control over your computer and thus ensure that its performance is as optimal as possible.

If you want to carry out this process on a weekly or monthly basis, you will simply have to do the following:

• you have to click “Optimize units”
• then in “Change settings”. There you will see a drop-down menu where you will be able to schedule defragmentation time.

Windows 10

If you are a user with the Windows 10 operating system You must take into account that this system has the SSD drive Therefore, this process will be carried out automatically but it is also possible to do it manually.

Therefore, if you want to perform this process manually in your windows computer just follow these Steps:

• To start you have to go to the option “Start” and there to “Equipment Explorer”.

• Once you are inside the folder “Equipment Explorer” In the menu on the left you will see a folder of “This team” you’re going to click on it.

• Now you are going to look for the area of “Device and units” there will appear all the units of your team, the external and internal ones.

• The next thing will be to select which of those units you are going to want to defragment, for this you are going to right click on the icon and select the option “Properties” that appears right at the bottom of the drop-down menu.

• A new window will appear on the screen “Local Disk Properties” different tabs will appear in it at the top, you have to select the tab of “Tools”.

• Once you are inside the option of “Tools” you have to select “Optimize”.

• Here a new window will appear “Optimize units” in it you will get a box with a list of the units that you can fragment and in the lower part you will find the option to “Analyze” there you will be able to know what state the unit is in and if the process needs to be carried out.

• Once the process is finished, you can make the decision if you want to upgrade the hard drive or not, if this is yes you just have to click on “Optimize” just at that moment the fragmentation of the drive begins.

in case you want defrag your drive automatically you just have to “Change settings” for this you need to do the following:

• in the window of “Optimize units” you will find the option “Change settings”.

• Once you have entered there, a new window will appear, in it you will see the option to “Scheduled Execution” which will be marked by default. If you leave it like this, the system will carry out the fragmentation process automatically.
• The next thing will be in the drop-down menu you have to select the frequency in which this action will be carried out (Daily, weekly or monthly).

• Once you have chosen this you have to click on the option “To choose”.

• To finish, a list will appear on the screen with the units that your computer recognizes, you just have to mark those that you want to be optimized automatically and select the option “automatically optimize new drives” and finally “To accept”.

Why is it good to defrag a hard drive from time to time?

Performing this procedure on computers with mechanical hard drives are a very good alternative at the moment of wanting that the machine works with a higher speed and its performance is as optimal as possible.

Keep in mind that this unit is the one in charge of storing the data supplied to the equipment and when it is new, all the data that is added to it will be done in an orderly and consecutive way.

But this is something that will change over time, since when you start deleting data and files as well as rewriting information, it can cause create empty spaces in the unit which over time will become a problem.

Please note that these empty spaces will make the files and data they begin to be placed randomly thus the search process will be much slower and the computer system will start to run slower. So if you have a Old Windows and your hard drive is mechanical It is recommended that you carry out this action constantly as it will help your computer to function better.

Note that if you have a SSD drive You will not need to perform this action constantly since the same will be done automatically when necessary. Which will help you keep the equipment in an optimal state.

Is it really necessary to defrag new SSD hard drives?

In recent years, a large number of computers with SSD drivestaking into account that these units perform by themselves the rearrangement process. This is where the doubt has arisen about how necessary the need to fragment these disks ourselves can be.

At the beginning of the SSD this action was not highly recommended, since it could come to bring consequence to the unit, since the process implied intensive reading and writing within the diskthis could significantly reduce unit life. Nevertheless, today this perspective has changed.

This is because the technology with which SSDs have been manufactured has been improving over timeToday, despite the fact that they perform the defragmentation automatically, we can also do it manually without much to fear. But, keep in mind that the benefit of doing it ourselves will be little, since these SSDs perform this action by themselves and are much faster than conventional ones.

Therefore, the most recommended is to configure the SSD for it to do this reorder process automatically at least every 30 dayswhich will help you to be constantly eliminating all those empty spaces and thus ensure that the operation of your team is the best.