how do defrag my pc ?

Question

someone has told me i need to defrag my pc because it is running really slow. what is defragging and how do i do it? im a pc dummy so detailed answers please : )

Answer 1

Why should we defragment machines?

When you defrag your machine, you are making your machine work better. Defragging puts all of the pieces needed to run your program in a close proximity to each other on the hard drive. When you delete programs in your hard drive, you leave empty spaces where pieces of the program were inserted during installation. When you load a new program, the computer goes to the first available slot to place all the parts, so your program could be loading pieces at the beginning, middle and end. This forces your hard drive to hunt all over in accessing all the pieces and putting them together to run your application. By defragging the machine, all the program pieces will be moved and put together so your hard drive can run optimally and access programs as fast as it is capable of doing. In Win98, the machine is smart enough to realize which program you use most often and make them more accessible in the hard drive itself so that it can be accessed even more quickly.
Defragging your machine should be part of your regular maintenance. Twice a month should keep your machine running at optimal level. If you load and delete programs often, then defrag more often.

Before defragging your machine, close all open Windows programs.
Step 1:

Start/Programs/Accessories/System Tools/ScanDisk
Follow this shorthand until you open ScanDisk. If you have not done a ScanDisk in awhile, I would suggest clicking on Thorough. If you have a weekly schedule for maintenance, then just the Standard will be sufficient. Select the hard drive you wish to scan and click on start. After this process is finished, go to the next step.

Step 2:

Start/Programs/Accessories/System Tools/Disk Defragmenter
Follow the shorthand steps until you open Disk Defragmenter.

Select the drive to defrag and click ok and it will defrag your hard drive.

Another way :

Double click on My Computer and right click on the drive you wish to defrag. Select properties. Go to the Tool tab. You can select the button Check Now by Error-Checking Status to use the ScanDisk tool, then select the button Defragment Now by Defragmentation status.
Depending on how large your hard drive is, this process will take anywhere from 20 minutes to over an hour.

It is advisable to do this at the end of the day when you don't need to use your machine.

Answer 2

Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Disk Defragmenter. Run it, click Defragment at the bottom. Be prepared for a somewhat lenghty process if you need to defrag that bad.
Do this once a week, whether you need to or not, so as to keep it defragmented without waiting a long time. Also, do not use your computer for a single thing while defrag is in process.

Answer 3

It depends on your operating system, but under most versions of Windows, go to the Start Menu. Then select Programs. Then select Accessories. Then select System Tools. Finally, you should see "Disk Defragmenter". Click that.

Once you open the Disk Defragmenter, click on your main hard drive partition (probably C:\) and click "Defragment".

Defragging a hard drive usually takes a few hours, and you shouldn't use your computer during that time. Doing it overnight is usually the best idea.

If you computer is running slowly, you might want to think about getting an anti-spyware or anti-virus product as well.

Answer 4

Start >> all programs >> accessories >> system tools >> disk defragmenter. Close all other open programs, that's important. Don't open anything while it's defragging. Click analyze, and it'll tell you whether you should or should not defrag, it will probably say yes so just say ok, and click defragment, or you can just click defragment without analyzing. It takes my computer about 20 minutes to do it and I do it at least once a week, so if yours needs it bad it might take over an hour.

Answer 5

Reading and writing data on a heavily fragmented hard drive is slowed down as the time for the heads to move between fragments on the disk surface can be substantial. The disk operates at speeds millions of times slower than the CPU; thus the desire to process more efficiently encourages defragmentation. Operating system manufacturers often recommend periodic defragmentation in order to keep hard drive access as fast as possible.

Fragmented data also spreads over more of the disk than it needs to. Thus one may defragment in order to compact data storage before splitting a single partition into two or more partitions (for example, with GNU Parted, or PartitionMagic).

Defragment a Disk Volume
1. If the Disk Defragmenter tool is not already running, click Start, point to All Programs, point to Accessories, point to System Tools, and then click Disk Defragmenter.
2. Click the volume that you want to defragment.
3. Click Defragment to begin the operation.
4. Review the progress of the operation in the Defragmentation Display window. Fragmented files on the disk appear in red, contiguous files are blue, and system files are green. The goal is to eliminate most of the red in the window.

Answer 6

Hit Start Programs Accessories and System Tools and hit defragment button.

You should do this once every 4 weeks or if you install a large program. It optimizes the disk so it runs faster by moving frequently used programs to the front of the disk an and cleans up the empty space for quick writting.

Answer 7

Goto START >PROGRAMS >ACCESSORIES >SYSTEM TOOLS > DEFRAG, When your system and other programs access files, read or write, they only take the parts that they need, so files get place on your hard drive in "FRAGMENTS", a defrag program joins the fragments back together, this allows for faster execution by the system and other programs, because they don't have to spend so much time searching for what they need

Answer 8

If you're using Windows XP it couldn't be easier.
Close all your programs and disconnect from thenet.
Go to Start - All Programs - Accessories - System Tools - Disc Defragmenter.
Just click the box and off you go.
Remember not to try to do anything else, just let it run.

It might take up to 4 hours if its your first time. Once every 2 or 3 months after that will keep it in good nick.

Answer 9

Click : Start
click : Control Panel
click : Performance and Maintenance
click: rearrange items on your hard disk to make programs run faster.

click: defragment

Answer 10

i suggest you do a disk cleanup by going to MY computer and then selecting c drive right click on it and goto properties.
you would see disk cleanup click it and then new window would open asking you what all would like to delete.keep the defaults already selected and them continue.
run the defrag once you have done disk cleanup as suggested by others.