How to Defragment Your Hard Drive in Command Prompt

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Last Updated: January 1, 2018

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This guide will teach you how to do a manual disk defrag through the Windows command prompt. Some Windows users have trouble with the Disk Defragmenter program so this is a solution to that problem, and might come in handy for other instances, too.

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1. 
   1
   Click the Start Button and type in 'cmd.exe' into the search box.
2. 
   2
   Right click on 'cmd.exe' and select the option 'Run as Administrator.'
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3. 
   3
   In the window that pops up, type 'defrag C: /U'
4. 
   4
   Wait for the defragmentation to complete. This will take some time depending on how large and fragmented your disk is.
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Tips

• If you have more than one disk that needs to be formatted, add it in to the command, like this 'defrag C: F: /U'
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Warnings

• Do not close the command prompt once you have started the command. This may cause damage to your files.
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• Solid State Drives do not need to be defragmented. This only wears them out.
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