Defragmenting a Hard Drive (Vista)

One of the most important ways you can keep your computer running like it should is to make sure you defragment your hard drive regularly.  In this article, I shall explain how to defragment a computer running Windows Vista.

[Note: For an explanation of what defragmenting is, please read my article entitled "Computers made simple: What does defragment mean and is it important?"]

Goto My Computer and right click on your hard drive (usually C:)  Select Properties

When the properties list opens, click on the “tools” tab at the top of the window.

Now click on the button that says “Defragment Now…”

At this point you can set the computer to automatically defragment in the background on a schedule here.  Simply make sure that “Run on a schedule” is checked and then click modify schedule.

Now pick a time and day of the week that is convenient for you and press ok.

Now press “defragment now…”

Select the Drives you want to defragment.  (probably all of them, but at least C:) and hit Ok.

Now all you have to do is wait for it to finish!  It should run in the background now.

(see also Defragmenting a Hard Drive in XP )

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