How to Use Windows 7 Disk Defragmenter

   Information

Fragmentation makes your hard disk do extra work that can slow down your computer. Removable storage devices such as USB flash drives can also become fragmented. Disk Defragmenter rearranges fragmented data so your disks and drives can work more efficiently. While Disk Defragmenter can run on a schedule, this will show you how to open and use Disk Defragmenter to manually analyze and defragment your disks and drives in Windows 7.

   Note

• If the disk is already in exclusive use by another program, or if the disk is formatted using a file system other than NTFS file system, FAT, or FAT32, then it cannot be defragmented.
• Network locations cannot be defragmented.
• If a disk that you're expecting to see under Current status is not showing up there, it might be because it contains an error. You should try to repair the disk first with Disk Check, then return to Disk Defragmenter to try again.

   Warning

Solid State Drives (SSD) and USB flash key drives do not need to be defragmented. Doing so may shorten the lifespan of them.

OPTION ONE

Using "Disk Deframenter" in Windows 7

1. Open the Start Menu, and double click on to expand All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, and click on Disk Defragmenter. (See screenshot below)

A) Go to step 3.

OR

2. Open the Start Menu, then type dfrgui into the search line and press Enter.

3. To Anaylze a Disk
NOTE: This will anaylze the selected disk to see what percentage fragmented it is. If the number is above 10%, you should defragment the disk.

A) Select a disk, and click on the Anaylze disk button. (See screenshot below)

4. To Defragment a Disk
NOTE: Disk Defragmenter might take from several minutes to a few hours to finish, depending on the size and degree of fragmentation of your hard disk. You can still use your computer during the defragmentation process.

A) Select a disk, and click on the Defragment disk button. (See screenshot below)

B) You will now see the disk being defragmented. (See screenshot below)
NOTE: You can abort the defragmentation of the selected disk at anytime by clicking on the Stop operation button.

5. When finished, click on Close. (See screenshot below)

OPTION TWO

Run Defragmenter from Drive's Properties Page

1. Open the Start Menu and click on the Computer button on the right dark side.

2. Right click the hard disk drive that you want to check, and click on Properties. (see screenshot below)

3. Click on the Tools tab, and click on the Defragment now button. (see screenshot below)

4. You can now do either step 3 or 4 in OPTION ONE above.

OPTION THREE

Run Defragmenter in a Command Prompt

1. Do step 2 or 3 below for how you would like to run the defrag command.

2. To Use an Elevated Command Prompt in Windows 7

A) Open an elevated command prompt.

B) Go to step 4.

3. To Use a Command Prompt at Boot

A) Open a command prompt at startup.

B) In the command prompt, type diskpart and press Enter.

C) In the command prompt, type list volume and press Enter.
NOTE: Make note of the drive letter that you want to run defrag on. The drive letter for the drive will not always be the same at boot as it is in Windows 7.

D) In the command prompt, type exit and press Enter.

E) Continue on to step 4.

4. In the command prompt, type in the following command below followed by one or more switches (flags) that you would like to use below with a space between each switch and press Enter.
NOTE: For example, the most common command to run defrag on your C: drive is:

defrag C: /F

defrag [drive letter]: [switches]

   Tip

If you would like to defrag more than one drive letter at once, then you can just include as many separate drive letters in the command like below for the ones you want to defrag. For example, with drive letters C, E, and H.

defrag C: E: H: /F

Switches:
NOTE: The ones in red below are new to Windows 7.

• /A - Perform analysis on the specified volumes.
• /B - Boot optimization to defrags the boot sector of the boot volume (ex: Windows drive). This will not work on a SSD.
• /C - Perform the operation on all volumes.
• /E - Perform the operation on all volumes except those specified.
• /F - Forces defragmentation of the volume when free space is low.
• /H - Run the operation at normal priority (default is low).
• /M - Run the operation on each volume in parallel in the background.
• /R - Performs partial defragmentation (default). Attempts to consolidate only fragments smaller than 64 megabytes (MB).
• /T - Track an operation already in progress on the specified volume.
• /U - Print the progress of the operation on the screen.
• /V - Print verbose output containing the fragmentation statistics.
• /X - Perform free space consolidation on the specified volumes.

That's it,
Shawn

Related Tutorials

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• How to Turn the Windows 7 Disk Defragmenter Schedule On or Off
• How to Run Disk Check in Windows 7
• How to Add Defragment to Context Menu in Windows 7 and Vista