5 Effective Ways to Defragment Hard Drives on Computers in 2024

Hard drive fragmentation not only causes your computer to have file errors, but also has a very bad effect on hard drive data, this can easily happen when you often copy or move files or delete data. Therefore, TipsMake wants to show you 

What is hard drive fragmentation? Causes of hard drive fragmentation

What is hard drive fragmentation?

Hard drive fragmentation is a condition in which computer data is distributed and scattered in many different areas of the hard drive. This data is not arranged in order, so when you open a document file, the hard drive must continuously move to many different locations to find enough data pieces. Therefore, data retrieval is slow, time-consuming, and more seriously, the computer will freeze or hang.

Causes of hard drive fragmentation

One of the causes of hard drive fragmentation is frequent manipulation, installation, removal of software, and moving of data. These operations will cause your computer data to be scattered in many locations, scattered throughout the hard drive.

Gaps are created when you delete and copy any file. If you write a data file larger than its size into those gaps, fragmentation will occur. At this time, your data file will be divided into small pieces and stored in different locations.

The harmful effects of hard drive fragmentation

In terms of mechanics, hard drive fragmentation will lead to longer data retrieval, the computer will lag, freeze or hang. Scattered data will cause the reader to move continuously many times, affecting the life of the components in the machine, damaging the hard drive. At work, hard drive fragmentation will reduce your work efficiency because it takes a lot of time to read data. Therefore, it is very necessary to regularly check the data status and find ways to defragment the hard drive on the computer.

How to defragment hard drive on computer effectively 2024

Hard drive data fragmentation has a huge impact on your work performance and computer status. To avoid this situation, TipsMake will introduce you to the top 5 ways to defragment your computer's hard drive extremely effectively.

Disk Defragmenter tool available in Windows

The first way to defragment a hard drive on a computer is Disk Defragmenter. This is a tool that is built into Windows. With this tool, you can detect whether your hard drive is fragmented or not without using external software. You can easily check your computer with the following steps:

Step 1: Go to Start, select search and type the keyword ' Disk Defragmenter '.

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Step 2: Launch the software, select the drive to check and select Analyze .

- Then the system will check and give the result of % of fragmented files. As shown below, the  E drive of the machine is fragmented 0%:

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Step 3: After checking, you will know if your computer has a fragmented hard drive or not. If so, click on that item and select Defragment disk to resolve the fragmentation.

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Step 4: Select Close to finish after the defragmentation process is complete.

Defraggler - Completely Free Hard Drive Defragmentation Software

The most used hard drive defragmentation software is Defraggler. It is popular because of its simple operation, easy-to-use interface, and especially Vietnamese support. The software can check the files you want instead of scanning the entire hard drive, so the defragmentation process is focused and less time-consuming. Moreover, Defraggler allows users to schedule the defragmentation process in advance.

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MyDefrag Windows - Defragmentation Software, Hard Drive Optimization

MyDefrag is considered a compact but highly effective hard drive defragmentation software. With this software, you only need to schedule defragmentation for areas or the entire hard drive, and all other operations will be performed automatically. Therefore, you do not have to waste time waiting for the check to finish before proceeding to solve the problems.

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Auslogics Disk Defrag - Hard Drive Defragmentation Software, Speed ​​Up Computer

The biggest advantage of Auslogics Disk Defrag software is that it allows two operations including hard drive optimization and defragmentation to take place in parallel at the same time. During the checking process, if errors are detected, they will be automatically repaired and optimized, so the speed is much better than many other software. This software also supports defragmentation for each specific specified file.

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Smart Defrag - Effective Hard Drive Defragmentation Software 

Smart Defrag software has the same function as Defraggler, allowing defragmentation, checking & optimizing hard drives in parallel. This software has a simple interface, easy to use, high efficiency but less time consuming, so it is trusted by many people.

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Samuel Daniel

Update 17 January 2025