Defragmenting your hard drive used to be something you had to do regularly to keep your PC in top condition. Technology has moved on however and it's not quite as essential as it once was. Regardless, it's still a good idea to do it from time to time and we're going to show you how.

Now, with modern SSHDs, the advantages of defragging are questionable and in the case of SSDs, inappropriate. We’ll explain what defragging is, the benefits, and how to get it done on Windows 7, 8, and 10.

What is defragging?

In basic terms, defragmenting is exactly what it sounds like: it's an undoing of the fact that data gets fragmented across your hard drive. Over time as files are saved, resaved, or deleted on your drive, small packets of information end up deposited in random places all over the disk rather than all together.

On a traditional spinning hard drive, these files take longer to find as the read head has to move to multiple positions on the disk rather than being able to read the data in consecutive sectors. 


Should I defrag my hard drive?



How to defrag your hard drive in Windows 10

You'll most likely notice the biggest difference in terms of startup times, but you can also try our 5 free ways to clean up your PC. Plus, check for signs that you hard drive is dying. 

 How to defrag a hard drive in Windows 7



How to defrag hard drive in Windows 7


How to defrag a hard drive in Windows 8





How to defrag a hard drive in Windows 10


How to defrag hard drive on Windows 7 8 10


How to defrag hard drive Windows 10 8 7

A rough rule of thumb is that drives that are over 10 percent fragmented should be optimised. To do this you just need to select the drive and click Optimise.


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