Accessing and changing this schedule is easy to do. If you have Windows 7 or newer, your computer automatically defrags your hard drive on a scheduled weekly basis. If a hard drive is too fragmented, your computer may freeze up or not start at all. If you don't regularly defrag your hard drive, your computer may run slowly and/or may take a long time to start up after you turn it on. It's taking all of the data and reorganizing it so your computer can find things more easily and make the most of its available space.ĭefragging your computer can both solve and prevent a number of problems. When you defrag your hard drive, your computer is doing something similar. When you finish doing the laundry, you usually sort your clothing back into organized piles so they can go back into your closet or dresser. Everything gets moved around and separated (or fragmented) and your computer has to work harder to find everything it needs. This is similar to what happens over time to the data on your hard drive. All of your clothes are still there, but they're jumbled together and take up a lot of space. There are lots of different types of clothing and colors, and they all get mixed together in the wash.

Imagine that all of the information on your hard drive is a load of laundry. If you have a Mac, you won't need to defrag your hard drive. In this lesson, we'll show you the basics of defragging. One of these steps is defragmenting (or defragging) your hard drive. en/basic-computer-skills/tips-for-speeding-up-your-computer/content/ How to defragment your hard driveĪs a computer owner, there are several steps you'll want to take to ensure it is running up to speed.

Lesson 18: How to Defragment Your Hard Drive

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