How to defragment a Windows 11 hard drive to enhance your computer's performance? This article provided by MiniTool introduces you to three straightforward methods to defragment your PC and make it operate more smoothly. If your computer feels sluggish, try one of these methods now to optimize the hard drive through defragmentation.

When Is Disk Defragmentation Necessary on Windows 11?

Occasionally, you may notice your Windows 11 PC becoming slower and slower, and one of the reasons for this could be fragmented hard drive files. Over time, as files are saved, modified, or deleted, small pieces of information are stored in random locations on the hard drive.

As more and more data is written and erased, an increasing number of fragments are generated. On HDDs, these files take longer to locate because the read head must move to various locations to access them.

A reliable solution is defragmentation. This process eliminates gaps between files to prevent movement and ensures faster read/write speeds for your PC. Both HDDs and SSDs (though less frequently than HDDs) require defragmentation.

So, how can you defragment a Windows 11 PC to achieve better performance? Three methods are outlined below.

Three Methods to Defragment a Hard Drive on Windows 11

Defragment Windows 11 with Drive Optimization

Windows 11 includes a built-in defragmentation tool to defragment your hard drive. With this tool, you can customize settings to automatically run defragmentation to optimize your PC hard drive. Here's how to defragment a Windows 11 PC.

1. Open the Windows Settings app via the shortcut combination Win I.

2. Under the System tab, go to click Storage from the right section.

3. Scroll down and click Advanced storage settings.

4. Select Drive optimization, and the Optimize Drives window will appear.

   

5. Choose the drive you wish to defragment and click Optimize to start the defragmentation.

If desired, you can allow Windows to automatically defragment the hard drive on your Windows 11 PC to maintain its performance.

Here's how to set this up:

1. In the Optimize Drives interface, click Turn on under Scheduled optimization.

2. Check the box for Run on a schedule, and select the frequency of the schedule – daily, weekly, or monthly.

3. Ensure the option Increase task priority, if three consecutive scheduled runs are missed is selected.

4. Click the Choose button and then select the drives you want to optimize on a regular schedule. Confirm that Automatically optimize new drives is selected and click OK.

   

The hard drives will be automatically and periodically defragmented to improve the performance of the PC.

Defragment Windows 11 via Command Prompt

Another method to defragment your hard disk is by using Command Prompt.

1. Launch Command Prompt (CMD) in Windows 11.

2. In the CMD window, type defrag /? and press Enter. This lists all the options supported by the defrag. To use defrag, enter the command – defrag [drive letter] [parameter] [extra parameters].

   

For instance, if you want to simply defragment drive C, use the command defrag C:. To analyze your C drive to determine if it needs defragmentation, type defrag C: /A. To defragment all your drives at once, type defrag /C and press Enter. Just use the appropriate command line based on the given parameters on the CMD window.

Defragment Hard Drive Using Batch File in Windows 11

Additionally, you can defragment a Windows 11 hard disk using a batch file. Here's how to perform the task.

1. Press Win R, type notepad, and click OK.

2. Open File Explorer to view the drives on your PC (my PC has C, D, E drives). Then, type the following lines into the text editor:

   <code>@echo off
   defrag.exe c: -f
   defrag.exe d: -f
   defrag.exe e: -f</code>

   

3. Save the file as a .bat file.

4. Run this file with administrative privileges to defragment the hard drive.

That covers all the information about how to defragment a Windows 11 hard drive. Simply choose one method for defragmentation to boost your computer's performance. If you ever encounter issues while trying to defragment your disk, refer to this post for solutions – Windows Defrag Not Working: Here’s Top 5 Solutions.

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