How to DEFRAG a SYSTEM drive in Windows 10.

[lesliebirch1959]

My SYSTEM drive says it is 100% fragmented & I am using Windows 10. My questions is how do i DEFRAG or OPTIMIZE it please ?

I find it hard to accept an opinion, to "just ignore it". If that is what you wish to say, then please explain, (for my information only) in plain English, your reasons why ?

Leslie

 

[Ralston18]

SSD or HDD?

You do not defrag SSD's. HDD's can and should be defragged when necessary.

You can ignore fragmentation but it slows down your computer as files are broken into many little pieces (fragments) that end up scattered all around the disk platters. Your system has to spend more time and resources finding, collecting, and assembling any given file that may be needed.

The situation gets worse as the drive fills up and it is harder and harder to find an open area big enough to keep a file all together.

Inefficient.

Defragging (again for HDD) is easily done. For example:]

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4026701/windows-defragment-your-windows-10-pc

Look for and find a few other similar links and tutorials about the process and how to defragment. Just to ensure that you are comfortable with and knowledgeable about the why's, the how's, and the risks.

Full back up is always recommended.

And do some "house-cleaning" before defragging to delete old, unneeded data files, temp files, and unused applications.

CCleaner (free tool and very good) will help with such things. Avoid registry cleaners.

One more comment: Be sure that it is the "system" is reporting the problem and not some third party application or tool that just wants to have you purchase a fix of some sort.

 

[RememberThe5th]

You can download auslogics disk defragg and run it it should take depending on speed of the HDD around 1h-2h.

 

[rgd1101]

system drive or the recovery/boot partition?

 

[Colif]

That ssd rule is mostly right but Win 10 does still run defrag on 1 portion of the ssd once a month - https://superuser.com/questions/1150641/should-i-defragment-my-ssd

Ralstons instructions are right for hdd though

 

[raider4141]

Win10 comes with disk cleanup, don't know if that's defragging, but it defragged my hdd.

 

[Colif]

Win10 comes with disk cleanup, don't know if that's defragging, but it defragged my hdd.

Disk cleanup doesn't defrag drives

Disk cleanup removes old files and gives you back space

You can use Disk Cleanup on a regular basis to reduce the number of unnecessary files on your drives, which can free up drive space and help your PC run better. It can delete temporary files and system files, empty the Recycle Bin, and remove a variety of other items that you might no longer need.

https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/3012-open-use-disk-cleanup-windows-10-a.html


Defrag reorganises the data on your drives so that the parts of programs are altogether, not randomly placed all over the drive, making them faster to run - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defragmentation

If you have a hdd, you need to run both... if you have an ssd, you only need to run disk cleanup, Win 10 will look after the ssd for you.

 

[anthony_zl1]

On the bottom left there is a search bar you can use, type in "disk defragmenter" and a window should pop up with your available drives. Click the disk you want to defrag and click "analyze it" after its done analyzing you can start the defragmentation process. Hope this helps.

 

[The_Prophecy]

On the bottom left there is a search bar you can use, type in "disk defragmenter" and a window should pop up with your available drives. Click the disk you want to defrag and click "analyze it" after its done analyzing you can start the defragmentation process. Hope this helps.

Keep in mind that when you open the defrag tool built into Windows 10 and select an SSD, it will optimize (i.e. send the TRIM command) to the drive, NOT defrag the drive. As has already been mentioned, defragging an SSD is not only unnecessary, but harmful to the drive.

The TRIM command helps keep future write operations to the SSD running as fast as possible by helping the drive more efficiently handle Garbage Collection.