How to defrag hard drive?
The fragmentation of files stored on the hard disk causes various problems, for example, it decreases the useful life of the disk, makes space on it useless, and both writing and reading of files slows down. For this reason, it is important that you know how to defrag your laptop’s hard drive.
Definition of defragment
You may have wondered what hard drive defragmentation is. It is a process that will allow you to eliminate spaces present in the memory and reorganize part of the files, improving both the access speed and the correct distribution of the free spaces on the hard disk.
Main advantages of defragmenting a hard drive
Now that you have the definition clear, it is important that you know what it is for defragmenting the hard drive. The purpose of this process is not only to increase the speed of the computer. Also, there are other advantages:
– Recover space, when you carry out the defragmentation of the hard drive, one of the main advantages is that you gain free space inside the device.
– Increase the useful life of the hard disk, due to the fact that the movements of its heads are greatly reduced.
– Another advantage is that you will be able to access the files on the hard drive more quickly, since all the folders will be better organized, without spaces.
Keep in mind that defragmentation only occurs on the HDD disk, since they have a physical head for their respective reading. In contrast, defragmenting an SSD is not necessary, since it lacks a physical read head.
Most used defragmentation programs
A defragmenter program is the tool that will help you organize the files and free space on your hard drive in a more efficient way. In the following section we mention some of the most used defragmenters.
O&O Defrag
It is a paid defragmenter with various functions such as backing up files that are being reorganized, to prevent the loss of valuable documents. In the same way, it has the function of working automatically, even if you are doing another task on the computer. In this sense, you won’t have to worry about doing HDD defragmentation manually.
Also, a free version is available, but you should know that it does not perform all the functions. However, it fulfills the main function, defragmenting the hard drive.
MyDefrag
A very important aspect that you must take into account when using a program to defragment the disk is that it organizes it correctly. MyDefrag is an application that uses scripts to defragment a hard drive. However, if you are not familiar with the use of this type of tool, it may seem complex to use. Therefore, it is recommended for people with advanced knowledge in this area.
Defraggler
Another of the most used and well-known defragmenters is Defraggler. This is a completely free application created by Piriform. It will allow you to defrag the entire hard drive immediately or several files of your choice.
It also has a paid version, where you can access more functions. You decide which of the two versions to use according to your budget.
Auslogics Disk Defrag
This tool offers multiple functions among which we can highlight a list of the files that have been fragmented. In other words, it gives you the possibility to view these files and their location on the hard drive more comfortably. Also, it has an ultra-fast engine, taking only 10 minutes to perform the defragmentation, which is quite practical if you want to save time.
In addition, this program lets you know if your hard drive requires defragmentation or not, which is a great advantage, especially if you don’t have experience in this area. Likewise, it offers you other interesting or useful information about the state of the hard disk.
disk-speedup
Disk Speedup is a very versatile tool because it supports a wide variety of file systems, including NTFS5, FAT, EFS, among others. It is characterized by being one of the most complete defragmentation programs on the market. So, if you still don’t know which one to use, we recommend this tool.
Likewise, it checks that everything has been written correctly, thus avoiding reading problems when the defragmentation finishes, being much safer than other programs.
Diskeeper
Diskeeper has been one of the most installed programs in countries like Mexico, Argentina and Spain. Likewise, we mention that it has a cache-type storage technology in RAM, efficiently guaranteeing the performance of hard drives. Similarly, its algorithm is one of the most advanced on the market.
On the other hand, we mentioned that this program verifies the performance of Windows, optimizing it if necessary.
UltraDefrag
UltraDefrag is a software made for beginners, therefore, it is very useful if you are just starting out and do not know how to use this type of application. It is available in several languages, in addition, there is both a free and paid version.
Among its main features we have that it allows us to optimize the hard disk quickly, defragmentation of a folder or a single file and boot-time defragmentation.
How to defrag a hard drive in Windows 10
It is possible to defragment a hard drive with an application that comes with the Windows 10 operating system, therefore, in this section we will explain it to you. And, if you have an Apple laptop, you should know that defragmenting a Mac drive is not necessary.
The first step you must follow is to write the word “defragment and optimize drives” inside the text box that will appear on your computer screen. In this case it will be Cortana’s text box; then click when the respective application appears. Keep in mind that it is an application that comes included with Windows 10, as well as some previous versions.
Next, select the drive (hard drive) you want to defragment and click analyze. That way you will know what state the hard drive is in, this may take a few minutes.
Finally, once the analysis has finished, click on the optimize button, in this way the defragmentation process will start. After a few minutes, the current status of your hard drive will appear on the screen, ie already defragmented.
