Most users have heard the phrase disk defragmentation, including on Windows 10, but they don’t know what it is and why. Actually, what a hard drive (screw) is for - everyone knows and its volume is remembered by heart.

The hard drive architecture is clusters - these are small parts for storing information. Our data is sequentially divided into small fragments and each is placed in a separate cluster. The smaller the file size, the fewer clusters it occupies, and vice versa.

To better imagine clusters and how they work, let's compare them with cells in a table. By the way, this zone is the general file table, which stores records with full description. And files and directories smaller than 1500 bytes are completely located in the MFT (Master File Table). By deleting files, you clear the clusters - but they were stored in a chaotic order (cell 1, 15 and 23, etc.).

For example, you downloaded a movie in a very good quality- about 10 Gb - it is divided into clusters and they must take their positions sequentially. With a heavy workload, there may not be a full-fledged sequence of free space. And so he finds free cells in total and writes there - this process is called fragmentation. When accessing a file, the hard drive begins to piece it together from different clusters - our cells - like a movie cut into pieces. Naturally, this slows things down.

One of the common questions is: "Disk defragmenter on Windows 10 and what is it." This is the process of optimizing clusters by creating a continuous sequence. So the logical circuit is restored -.

Is disk defragmentation necessary on Windows 10?

Starting with the 8th version of the OS, this process was called optimization. It is carried out independently by the system according to the planned schedule and does not require intervention. Defragmentation may be necessary if the performance of the computer has dropped. How to read on our website.
Still, you need to know where to find disk defragmentation on Windows 10. You need to go to "Explorer" → "This_Computer" → select any disk → right-click "Properties" → "Tools" → "Optimize".

You will see the Optimize Drives dialog box, where you can see several buttons, including information about the previous run and the current state. First, you need to know the state of affairs. Select the drive you need (if not selected will affect everyone). To do this, click "Analyze".

The analysis will not take very long - in case the hard drive is new or defragmentation was carried out earlier. After it will be seen what percentage of fragmentation. If it's small, you don't need to optimize.

How to Defragment a Disk on Windows 10

To do this, click on the "Optimize" button and a forced process will occur, it is worth noting that it is not always fast. The program runs in the background and does not require your presence.

As a result, you can see what the percentage of movement is, how many passes there were in defragmentation - it is almost impossible to predict its number, there can be either 27 or 15 - depending on:

• technical characteristics of the computer;
• hdd or ssd size;
• occupied volume;
• how effectively the information is placed;
• the number of file deletions and writes;
• analysis and defragmentation frequency.

What to do if it doesn't work

There are cases when disk defragmentation does not start in Windows 10. There may be several reasons.

• One of the reasons is SSD. It does not need this procedure, since the solid state and the principle of its operation is different from the HDD. As for optimization, it is performed. The principle lies in the TRIM feature enabled by default, a command that allows the OS to report non-existent blocks in the file system and that they can be physically removed, extending the lifetime. In some cases, SSD defragmentation is performed automatically, so if security settings are enabled.

Decided to disable automatic defragmentation of an SSD drive in Windows 10, but don't know how? Select "Change settings" → and in the "Optimization schedule" uncheck "Run on schedule (recommended)" → OK. By the way, the principle of disabling defragmentation of an SSD and HDD is the same, disabling is also possible by stopping the service.

• Another reason why the process may not work is the installation and further removal of a third-party defragmenter. The first thing to do is to check the status. system files: right click "Start" → "Command Prompt (Admin)" → enter "sfc /scannow".

If the system files are damaged, repair them and run a disk defragmenter on Windows 10. Otherwise, we continue to look for the cause.

• Check the status of the service: "Control Panel" → "Administrative Tools" → "Services" → in the list we find "Disk Optimization" → "Properties" → "Startup Type" → "Manual" → OK.

• Still no way to defragment your drive on Windows 10? Let's check the related services, the status is "Automatic" and they should be running:

1. "Module for launching DCOM-server processes";
2. "Comparator endpoints RPC";
3. "Remote Procedure Call (RPC)".

• Still unable to defrag your disk? Check the paging file settings: "Control Panel" → " Extra options system" → "Advanced" → "Settings" → tab "Advanced" → "Change" → there should be a checkmark "Automatically select the size of the paging file" → OK.

Does not work? Check screw for critical errors and restore the OS.

Is Registry Defragmentation Necessary?

Every user wants his computer to work optimally. Quickly opened images, searched for files and launched programs. But in order to achieve high performance of the computer, it is necessary to keep it in good condition. And one of the procedures for such support is disk defragmentation on Windows 7.

Work optimization

Before proceeding with the defragmentation process itself, it is worth understanding what it is. The hard drive in your computer is a very important component. Access to all files and, as a result, the speed of working with a computer depends on its performance. But at regular use you may notice that the time to open files becomes higher. This is a sure sign that you need to defrag.

The fact is that when writing files to disk, each file is divided into many fragments of the same size. These fragments are next to each other and the file opens easily and simply. But as you work with hard drive, copying, installing and deleting files - these fragments are further and further apart. The file still opens, but it takes more and more time to collect its pieces. The process collects these pieces and as a result speeds up the time it takes for the hard drive to interact with the file.

When file fragments are far apart, the system response when interacting with them slows down

The operation must be carried out from time to time. You can either be guided by your own observations of computer performance or use the disk analysis function. However, it is recommended to simply do it once a certain period. For most ordinary users, once a month will suffice. If you work a lot with a computer or the device is great amount operations to move files - it is worth making this process more frequent.

On large file servers the procedure is performed daily.

Defragmenting a hard drive in Windows 7

Developers from the Microsoft studio have provided users with their own defragmentation tool. Using this solution does not require you to install third-party programs on your computer. So, to carry out the procedure on your computer, we perform the following steps:

1. Select any hard drive via windows explorer 7. The choice of disk at this stage does not depend on which disk will be defragmented, so choose any.
2. Click on the selected drive right click mouse to open the context menu.
3. From the context menu that appears, select the "Properties" section.
4. Further, among the many tabs on top panel you need to open the "Service" tab.
5. In the "Disk Defragmenter" section, you must click on the "Perform Defragmentation" button

   In the properties of the disk, click the "Defragment" button

6. There is a possibility that this operation is set according to a schedule or using another program. In this case, a warning about this will appear. To continue working, you need to select delete settings. This will only reset the settings you made earlier and allow you to continue with the operation.

   Click "Remove Options" if a warning appears

7. The utility will open. Here you can select any disk connected to your computer. And also this window will contain information about the last defragmentation performed. Select a disk and start its scan with the "Analyze Disk" button.

   Select the button and click "Analyze Disk"

8. The disk will be checked. Its progress will be shown in the Progress column.

   Wait for the disk analysis to finish

9. The result of the check will show how many files are fragmented in percentage (that is, broken into fragments). If this indicator is more than 10%, then defragmentation will be useful. To start, click the "Disk Defragmenter" button.

   Examine the percentage of fragmented files and, if necessary, click the "Disk Defragmenter" button

10. The process will start. It will take a long time, depending on when the defragmentation was last performed and on the size of the hard drive. On a capacious storage that has not been subjected to this procedure for a long time, the process can take tens of hours.
11. If you need to shut down your computer and interrupt the disk optimization process, you can use the Stop Defragmentation button. This action will end the current file and then stop the process. Do not rudely interrupt the operation, for example, by turning off the power. This can damage the files that were being worked on.

    If you need to interrupt the defragmentation process, click the "Stop defragmentation" button

12. Upon successful completion, the end date will be shown and the number of fragmented files will be zero. You can close the utility after that.

    Close the program after defragmentation is complete.

In order not to reproduce the process manually, you can click the "Set up schedule" button in the utility and set a convenient time for you.

Number of passes

If, when analyzing the disk, you can see in percentage how much you have left to complete, then during the defragmentation, only the percentage of the current “Pass” and its number are indicated in the “progress” column. How many passes must be done before the defragmentation is complete? In fact, this, like the overall duration of the process, depends on the following factors:

• the date of the last defragmentation;
• the power of your computer and the speed of your hard drive;
• the size of your hard drive;
• the number of file operations on the disk.

There is no way you can determine in advance how many passes you will need. Just wait, even if their number is more than ten and a lot of time passes.

Video: Disk Defragmenter on Windows 7

If the process does not start

There are several reasons why this might happen. Let's try to solve each of them one by one. possible causes this problem.

Check for system file corruption

First of all, it is worth checking the system for damaged files. If any are found, they will need to be restored. To check the system:

With these simple steps, you can identify damage Windows files, which may have affected the defrag service.

Enable the defrag service

If the previous check did not reveal anything, the problem may be in the service settings. We do the following:

If you have configured this moment, but nothing has changed for the better, it is also worth checking the status of the following services:

• DCOM server process launcher;
• RPC Endpoint Mapper;
• remote procedure call (RPC).

Each of them must be configured to start automatically.

Checking the hard drive for faults

Another reason possible problems with the launch - a malfunction of the hard drive itself. Maybe it's damaged and you don't know about it. To perform this check:

Defragmenting an SSD

Principle SSD work discs is very different from the principle of operation hard drives. However, they suffer from some problems and these problems are especially noticeable on Windows 7, because at the time of the appearance of this operating system SSD drives were not distributed among ordinary users. Therefore, the main tools of this system are not designed to work with them. There are many programs or settings that regularly overwrite many files, wearing out some parts of the SSD drive faster than others. This is, for example:

• system swap file - it performs hundreds of operations to write temporary files;
• browser cache - any modern browser also saves a lot of temporary information and constantly updates it;
• automatic program save files are also an example of permanent overwriting of data.

But how does this relate to defragmentation and is it necessary, given the completely different device of this type of disk? After all, to read SSD files, the disk does not perform mechanical actions. It turns out that a permanent operation of this type is unnecessary and even harmful to the SSD drive. That is why this feature is disabled by default in Windows 7. But you can do a one-time thing to redistribute files. That is, those files that are regularly updated will appear in other sectors, while files not previously overwritten will take their place. This will be useful and will somewhat reduce the uneven wear of your SSD drive, but it makes sense to do this only once.

All of the above applies exclusively to Windows 7. In Windows 10, for example, the system performs completely different configuration and SSD optimizations disk.

Programs and utilities for conducting

Despite the fact that Windows 7 has built-in defragmentation tools, their quality, speed, and customization options for this process do not suit everyone. Therefore, over time, many programs have appeared for defragmenting (and other optimization procedures) of the hard drive.

Defraggler

Nimble and highly revered by users, the Defraggler program from the creators of at least popular program ccleaner. The program stands out for the following benefits:

• the ability to defragment not the entire disk, but only part of it or even individual files. This allows you to make the process much faster and more convenient;
• deeper analysis and defragmentation than standard means Windows 7;
• there is a choice between types - regular and batch;
• method of defragmenting system files - the process is fully performed during system boot;
• slowing down further fragmentation of files - it means that you won’t need a second one for much longer;
• the existence of a portable version - the version of the Defraggler Portable program allows you to use all the functions of a full-fledged program without installing it on a computer. The utility can be launched from a flash drive or any disk.

Defraggler by the creators of Ccleaner

The Auslogics Disk Defrag Free program is no less popular defragmentation tool than the previous one. It differs:

• a very deep check - the analysis methods correspond to the previous program, but it checks a larger number of files on the disk;
• additional functions for checking the registry and analyzing files - the program does not correct these errors, but notifies the user about them;
• speed of defragmentation - full defragmentation of the hard drive takes about ten minutes.

Of course, this program has a paid version with advanced functionality, but also features free version quite enough.

Why is windows disk defragmentation not working?

Another software “fix” for faults in Windows, and today we’ll talk about why defragmentation does not work in Windows and how to deal with it.

Beginning with Windows Vista, file defragmentation runs by default every morning at 1.00 am, and there is no need to start defragmentation manually. Such a frequent launch is not required, the schedule can be disabled. However, at hour X, when trying to start defragmentation, we may encounter a message that begins with the words

UNABLE TO START DEFRAGMENTATION...

It's a shame. The function is extremely important for any hard disk spinning on a spindle. Let's fix this. If windows defragmentation does not work on the computer, I advise you to try a few steps. I will list them in sequence.

The very first reason : you installed some tricky defragmenter from the side. And then they removed it. If windows defragmentation does not work after such a case, know: remote program left a bunch of traces in the system or even deleted incorrectly. Let's run the traditional built-in diagnostic utilities for all occasions.

• Let's run:

Still not defragmenting? Move on.

Let's check the hard drive. The following command refers already to checking global faults. Run the command console again as an administrator and select the drive letter you want to defragment and press Enter. Then type the command chkdsk /r. Your sequence of actions will look something like this (for example, I chose a non-system disk, operations with it will be unavailable for a while):

By the way, in the above command, the key /r detects bad sectors of the disk and tries to recover them.

Defragmentation not working again? We walk along the path:

Your end goal is to test the file setup paging windows. Make sure the checkbox is checked. Believe me - disk defragmentation does not work if there is no paging file!

defragmentation not working again? And I have everything. Try system restore.

I hope it helped. Good luck.

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If you ask any computer geek you know, one of the items that will most likely be mentioned is disk defragmentation. It is about her that I will write today everything that I know.

In particular, we will talk about what defragmentation is and whether it needs to be done manually on modern Windows 7 and Windows 8 operating systems, whether it is necessary to defragment an SSD, what programs can be used (and whether these programs are needed) and how to defragment without additional programs on Windows, including using the command line.

If you have Windows 7, 8 or 8.1

AT latest versions operating systems from Microsoft - Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows 8.1, defragmentation hard drive starts automatically. In Windows 8 and 8.1, it occurs at random times when the computer is idle. In Windows 7, if you go into the defragmentation options, you will most likely see that it will run every Wednesday at 1am.

Thus, in Windows 8 and 8.1, the likelihood that you will need to manually defragment is unlikely. In Windows 7, this can happen, especially if after working at the computer you immediately turn it off and turn it on every time you need to do something again. In general, turning your PC on and off frequently is a bad practice and is more likely to cause problems than having your PC turned on 24/7. But this is a topic for a separate article.

But in Windows XP there is no automatic defragmentation, which is not surprising - the operating system is more than 10 years old. Thus, defragmentation will have to be done manually on a regular basis. How regularly? It depends on how much data you download, create, rewrite back and forth and delete. If games and programs are installed and removed daily, you can run defragmentation once a week or two. If all the work consists in using Word and Excel, as well as sitting in contact and classmates, then monthly defragmentation will be enough.

In addition, you can set up automatic defragmentation in Windows XP using the Task Scheduler. Only it will be less "intelligent" than in Windows 8 and 7 - if in modern OS defragmentation will "wait" when you are not working on the computer, then in XP it will be launched regardless.

Do I need to use third-party programs to defragment my hard drive?

This article would be incomplete without mentioning disk defragmentation programs. There are a large number of such programs, both paid and those that can be downloaded for free. Personally, I have not done such tests, however, searching the Internet did not give clear information about whether they are more effective than the built-in Windows Utilities for defragmentation. There are only a few possible advantages of such programs:

• Fast work, own settings for automatic defragmentation.
• Special defragmentation algorithms to speed up computer boot.
• Embedded additional features such as defragmenting the Windows registry.

Nevertheless, in my opinion, the installation, and even more so the purchase of such utilities, is not too necessary thing. AT last years hard drives became faster, and operating systems smarter, and if a slight fragmentation of the HDD ten years ago led to a noticeable decrease in system performance, today this almost does not happen. Moreover, few of the users with today's volumes hard drives they are filled "to the eyeballs", thus, file system has the ability to arrange data in an optimal way.

Free Disk Defragmenter Defraggler

Just in case, I will include in this article a brief reference to one of the best free disk defragmentation programs - Defraggler. The developer of the program is Piriform, which you may know from its CCleaner and Recuva products. You can download Defraggler for free from the official website http://www.piriform.com/defraggler/download. The program works with all modern Windows versions(since 2000), 32 and 64 bit.

Installing the program is quite simple, in the installation options you can configure some settings, for example, replacing the standard Windows defragmentation utility, as well as adding Defragler to context menu disks. All this is in Russian, if this factor is important to you. Otherwise, use free program Defragler is intuitive and defragmenting or analyzing a disk will not be a problem.

In the settings, you can set automatic scheduled defragmentation, optimize system files when the system boots, and many other options.

How to do defragmentation with built-in Windows tools

Just in case, if you suddenly do not know how to defragment in Windows, I will describe this simple process.

Disk Defragmenter in Windows Using the Command Prompt

All the same that was described a little higher and even more, you can do with the command defrag in command Windows line(command prompt must be run as administrator). Below is the listing background information on using defrag to defrag your hard drive in Windows.

Microsoft Windows (c) 2013 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. C:\WINDOWS\system32>defrag Microsoft Disk Optimizer (c) Microsoft Corporation 2013. Description: Optimizes and merges fragmented files on local volumes to improve system performance. defrag syntax<тома>| /c | /E<тома> [<задачи>] ] where<задачи>or not specified (regular defragmentation), or specified as follows: /A | | /o | /X Or, to track an operation already in progress on the volume: defrag<том>/T Options Value Description /A Analyze the specified volumes. /C Perform operation on all volumes. /D Standard defragmentation (default). /E Performs the operation on all volumes except those specified. /H Run the operation at normal priority (low by default). /K Optimize memory on the selected volumes. /L Re-optimize the selected volumes. /M Run the operation simultaneously on each volume in the background. /O Optimize using the appropriate method for the media type. /T Monitor an operation that is already in progress on the specified volume. /U Display the progress of the operation on the screen. /V Print detailed fragmentation statistics. /X Merges free space on the specified volumes. Examples: defrag C: /U /V defrag C: D: /M defrag C:\mount_point /A /U defrag /C /H /V C:\WINDOWS\system32>defrag C: /A Microsoft Disk Optimization (c ) Microsoft Corporation 2013. Call parse on (C:)... Operation completed successfully. Post Defragmentation Report: Volume Details: Volume Size = 455.42 GB Free Space = 262.55 GB Total Fragmented Space = 3% Maximum size free space= 174.79 GB Fragmentation statistics do not include fragments of files larger than 64 MB. Defragmentation of this volume is not required. C:\WINDOWS\system32>

That's probably almost everything I can tell you about disk defragmentation in Windows. If you have any questions feel free to ask them in the comments.