How To Defrag Hard Drive

Need to know how to defrag your hard drive?  You don't need to be a computer technician to do such a simple task.  The steps listed are pretty universal for other operating systems.  You can follow these steps for Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7.  On the earlier operating systems it is similar, but this article assumes you use one of the following listed above.  First, know that you don't need to defrag the hard drive everyday.  If you want to defrag every two weeks or once every month that will be sufficient.  Overdoing defragmentation can be very hard on the hard drive and possibly cause issues in the long run. 

Defrag Hard Drive

1. To get to the Disk Defragmenter window.  Go to the Start Menu -> Programs -> Accessories -> System Tools -> Disk Defragmenter.  If you find that these steps didn't help, the key is to find the accessories file and you will see the system tools that holds all the tools necessary to fix, repair and troubleshoot the computer.
2. Select the right button.  This window has a couple of options you can select from: "Defragment Now", "Modify Schedule" and "Select Volumes".  Sinceyou want to defrag the hard drive you will want to select the "Defragment Now" button. 
3. Select the hard drive(s) you wish to defrag. Choosing "Defragment Now" will bring up another window that will give you the option to select the hard drive(s) you wish to defrag.  If you don't want to defrag an extra drive, just remove the check in the check box.  After you have made your selections, click "OK".  Then the computer should start defraging the hard drive.  It could take anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour or more.  Don't turn off your computer while the hard drive is defraging.