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How to Defrag Your Computer

by Mark Baggesen
for About.com

4 of 4

Defrag the Hard Drive

Defrag

Defrag the Hard Drive

  1. If the program says your hard drive needs defragmenting, click on the Defragment button.
  2. Allow the program to do it’s work. It will take anywhere from 30 minutes to several hours to defragment your hard drive depending on: the size of the drive, the amount of fragmentation, the speed of your processor, the amount of your operating memory, etc.
  3. When the program has completed, close the program window. If there are any error messages make note of the error and print the log of this process to use in future maintenance or repair of the hard drive.

For more ways to optimize your Windows computer, also read Top 8 Ways to Speed Up Your Computer .

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