Patiently wait for Windows 10 to complete the process of Defragmenting the selected Hard Drive.

On the next screen, select the Hard Disk Drive that you want to defragment and click on the Optimize button.ģ. Type defrag in the Windows Search bar and click on Defragment and Optimize Drives option in the “Best Match” section of search results.Ģ. Steps to Defragment Hard Drive in Windows 10įollow the steps below to Defragment Hard Drive in Windows 10.ġ. In general, you should consider running ‘Optimize Drives’ utility, whenever you notice a sluggishness in the performance of your computer. While there is no set rule about when to Defragment Hard Drives, it is considered a good practice to keep the fragmentation percentage of Hard Disk Drive to a low number (5 to 7%). However, this may not always happen and it is a good idea to make sure that the Hard Disk Drive on your computer is not too fragmented.

Windows 10 should automatically run ‘Optimize Drives’ utility on your computer on a weekly basis to Defragment the Hard Disk and improve its performance. When to Defragment Hard Drive in Windows 10? Since, computers with SDD drives do not need to be defragmented, the Optimize Drives utility works in a different way to optimize the performance of SSD drives.Īfter running ‘Optimize Drives’ utility, you should notice improved startup times and quick opening of files and applications on your computer. This orderly arrangement of data on the Hard Drive minimizes the time required to read and write files, resulting in an overall increase in the data transfer rates on your computer. When you Run ‘Optimize Drives’ utility on a computer with traditional Hard Disk Drive (HDD), it defragments the hard drive, which ensures that scattered files get re-arranged in an orderly fashion, occupying contiguous storage locations on the Hard Drive. How Does ‘Optimize Drives’ Utility Speed Up Computer? Hence, there is a clear need to periodically Defragment the Hard Disk Drive of a computer using the in-built ‘Optimize Drives’ utility as available in Windows 10. This fragmentation of data is a common occurrence in traditional Hard Disk Drives, which ultimately leads to an overall slowdown of the operating system and programs running on a computer.

Windows optimize drives