Computer Defragmentation Windows 10

[Nikita Desjardins]

Iasked -to-speed-up-my-computer in another post and one answer was to run disk defrag. I have done this before and in the majority of cases (with multiple computers not just one) it seems to actually slow the computer down vs speeding the computer up. Why is this and what is going on?

There is absolutely nothing wrong with defragmenting your hard drive. Defragmenting reorders the data on the hard drive so that it is contiguous. "They say" that you will see a noticeable difference in speed, specifically faster. This was more true in the past, than it is now. Modern OSs, drives, and file systems benefit little from defragmentation. Yes, there are some cases where it makes a noticeable difference, but those are rare. Those occur on heavily used file systems where there are lots of writes/deletes going on. However, that is not the typical home or office user. A whole industry has popped up around defragmentation, and I personally feel its mostly snake oil. There are some benefits from advanced defragmenters, like moving data to the innermost track, etc. However, pure defragmention really provides little or no noticeable improvement.

Now as for your computers slowing down after a completed defrag... I honestly believe its not true. I think you are consciously looking for a difference in speed (which probably didnt happen) and therefore, subconsciously you think its slower.

You can set your computer to not go to sleep mode when closing the lid, but I wouldn't recommend that for your use. In fact, I'm not really fond about letting a laptop work when closed, for heat issues, on the monitor.

If you're using XP (not sure if it's changed in Vista) you can set up a scheduled task at a time when it is asleep. To have a scheduled task wake the computer you have to choose "Advanced Settings" and check a "Wake Computer" box. I use my netbook as my alarm by scheduling ForWhomTheBellTolls.mp3 to run in the mornings, very convenient. Be sure to harden your OS before using Scheduled Tasks (install all Service Packs and Security Updates).

The best option for you would be to simply automate defrag. Get Diskeeper09 or any other good defragmentation software and set it to defrag in background mode. It gets the job done even as you use your PC. There is no need to defrag manually or schedule tasks.

Defragmentation reverses the process your computer uses to break up data when it saves files to your hard drive. Defragging reformats your drive, reconstituting the files that were fragmented when they were written (saved) to your disk.

Hard disk access is a highly mechanical process, even though so many other computer components are purely digital. And disk access is the slowest part of computing. It can typically take 5-15 milliseconds for your computer to access the bits and bytes on a traditional hard disk drive (HDD), whereas accessing data on a modern solid state disk (SSD) or in RAM is done in a fraction of a millisecond.

Aside from the time it takes to access files, the overall throughput of hard disks is also low. Typical HDD speeds are 100 MB/sec for larger files and 0.5-1 MB for small file fragments (which are more common in day-to-day operations). Check out our detailed guide to learn more about the differences between SSDs and HDDs.

Imagine you clean up your computer by deleting five GB of data from your hard disk, leaving a five-GB gap in the middle of space otherwise occupied by Windows, your applications, and data files. The next day, you download the next hot game, which may be about 20 GB. Your hard disk stores the first five GB of the game in that gap you recently freed up, and it breaks up the remaining 15 GBs into fragments and stores them into other free spaces or slots them at the end of the occupied disk space.

Now your new game is split up, or fragmented, into two or more pieces. The read/write head of your mechanical hard disk now has to piece together the files for the game when you launch it. Stitching those files together takes more time than it otherwise would if the data were kept in one continuous block of information.

Defragging a traditional hard disk drive is safe and easy, and it keeps your disk healthy. Regular defragmentation and other maintenance tasks help your computer run smoothly, and the risk of damage to your hardware or files is extremely small, even if the process is disrupted mid-flow.

Fragmentation occurs on every computer. When files are saved, they are chopped up and stored in individual pieces on the hard drive or SSD wherever there is space. Defragmentation reverses this storage chaos. A defragmentation re-sorts the saved files and puts them back together.

No difficult decision as to which is the best defragmentation strategy for your PC. O&O Defrag takes care of everything itself. All you have to do is choose whether you want to start O&O Defrag yourself manually or whether you want it to take care of everything automatically.

Checking and repairing the Windows rescue environment: The rescue environment is essential for both a functioning Windows and Defrag IntensiveOptimize. On many computers, the Windows rescue environment is damaged, for example due to incorrect updates, and is therefore unusable. We have therefore expanded Check&Repair in O&O Defrag 28 so that your Windows rescue environment works reliably like it did on day one.

Over time, more and more ballast accumulates on a PC. Temporary files, Internet cache and the like can take on considerable proportions. This can lead to a storage space problem, especially on modern SSDs. But backups also take much longer than actually necessary.

O&O Defrag 28 now clearly shows you all installed programs. And with one click you can easily uninstall what you no longer need. This saves storage space (important for SSDs) and increases your security.

* O&O Syspectr is an additional service from O&O Software that requires registration and can be used free of charge for 1 year as part of this offer. O&O Syspectr does not extend automatically (no subscription), but can be extended upon request for a fee.

Volumes the file system marked as dirty, indicating possible corruption.

You must run chkdsk before you can defragment this volume or drive. You can determine if a volume is dirty by using the fsutil dirty command.

To perform this procedure, you must be a member of the Administrators group on the local computer, or you must have been delegated the appropriate authority. If the computer is joined to a domain, members of the Domain Admins group might be able to perform this procedure. As a security best practice, consider using Run As to perform this procedure.

A volume must have at least 15% free space for defrag to completely and adequately defragment it. defrag uses this space as a sorting area for file fragments. If a volume has less than 15% free space, defrag will only partially defragment it. To increase the free space on a volume, delete unneeded files or move them to another disk.

While defrag is analyzing and defragmenting a volume, it displays a blinking cursor. When defrag is finished analyzing and defragmenting the volume, it displays the analysis report, the defragmentation report, or both reports, and then exits to the command prompt.

Running the defrag command and Disk defragmenter are mutually exclusive. If you're using Disk defragmenter to defragment a volume and you run the defrag command at a command-line, the defrag command fails. Conversely, if you run the defrag command and open Disk defragmenter, the defragmentation options in Disk defragmenter are unavailable.

The defragmentation process runs scheduled task as a maintenance task, which typically runs every week. As an Administrator, you can change how often the task runs by using the Optimize Drives app.

Traditional optimization processes. Includes traditional defragmentation, for example moving files to make them reasonably contiguous and retrim. This is done once per month. However, if both traditional defragmentation and retrim are skipped, then analysis isn't run. Changing the frequency of the scheduled task doesn't affect the once per month cadence for the SSDs.

If your computer shuts off while defragmenting, it may crash the hard drive or corrupt the operating system, or both. If you have frequent power issues or other outages, only use a defragmentation program with a battery backup.

Defragging isn't necessary on solid-state hard drives since there aren't any spinning parts. Since the hard drive doesn't need to spin to find all the file's pieces, there isn't a lag between finding the file and the time it takes to open it.

Troubleshooting computer problems has become a necessary component of being a computer owner. While problems are inevitable, one of the easiest ways to ward most of them off is by performing consistent and routine maintenance. One necessary aspect of your routine maintenance should include defragmenting your Windows 7 hard disk. Plan on doing it at least monthly.

Hard disks store data in sectors. When the file system on the hard disk is first set up, there are probably a few bits of internal data present, but the disk is mostly one contiguous block of empty space. When you install your first program, the files are placed sequentially and close to each other. However, things begin to go awry when one of a few things happen:

The newly available space leaves a gap between the data that was stored before and after your deletion or modification. This space is called a fragment. In time, these fragments add up. The hard disk arm will have to move all over the surface to find and piece together your data. This is why you sometimes notice your operations are slow.

Disk Defragmenter might take several minutes to finish but can possibly take a few hours depending on the size and degree of fragmentation of your hard disk. However, you can still use your computer during the defragmentation process.

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