Best Free Disk Cleanup and Defrag Tool for Windows 7, 8, 10, 11

How do I do a disk cleanup and defrag?

“Help! My PC is literally slow. It takes a long time to load programs and boot into Windows 10. Is there any way to both clean and defrag a disk? Any software available?”

Why clean and defrag a PC?

Over time, our PCs can be slower and slower. On the one hand, junk files including cookies and cache affect system performance badly; On the other hand, many files are fragmented which reduces read and write speed. Thus, it’s necessary to both clean hard disks and defrag them on regular basis to improve the performance of your PC in Windows 11/10/8/7, making it run more smoothly.

How to clean disks in 3 ways in Windows 10?

Is there any disk cleanup and defrag tool in the market? Before answering the question, let’s first check the built-in tools of Windows 11/10/8/7 for disk cleanup and defragmentation.

Use Disk Cleanup

Disk Cleanup is the most efficient Windows 10 built-in utility to deep clean your disks like C, D, E, and F. If there’re too many junk files clogged up in a disk, it’s a good idea to turn to this utility for help.

1. In the search box on the lower left of the desktop, type “disk cleanup” and hit “ENTER” to bring up the Disk Cleanup dialogue box.

2. Select the disk you want to clean and hit “OK”.

3. Tick what you want to clean and hit “OK”.

4. Confirm the operation when asked.

Toggle on Storage Sense

Similar to Disk Cleanup, Storage Sense is a more powerful and efficient Windows built-in disk cleanup utility. One of its most significant features is that it allows cleaning a computer at intervals. Now, let’s check how to free up disk space by toggling on Storage Sense.

1. In the Start menu, select “Settings”.

2.  On the page of Windows Settings, click on “System”.

3. Select “Storage” on the left side and toggle on “Storage Sense” on the right.

Note: After activating Storage Sense, it works only when your PC is low on disk space. To clean your disks right now, you must select “Configure Storage Sense or run it now” and hit “Clean now”.

Delete hibernation files

If you can’t find any disk cleanup software for Windows 10, then, deleting the hibernation files must be a good choice. The Hibernate mode generates a plenty of hibernation files on the C drive. Thus, the issue C drive full Windows 10 and many other errors could constantly appear. So, one way for C drive disk cleanup is to delete hibernation files with the help of Command Prompt.

1. Still, in the search box, type “command prompt”, right-click on the result and select “Run as administrator”.

2. In the popup window, type “powercfg.exe -h off” and hit “ENTER”.

Now, you’ll notice there’s more free space on the C drive.

How to defrag a disk in Windows 10?

A disk will get fragmented over time. Fragmentation makes your hard disk do extra work that reduces write and read speed and thus, slows down your computer. Luckily, on Windows 11/10/8/7, you can still defragment your disk with its built-in tool to rearrange fragmented data so your disks and drives can work more efficiently.

Note: Only in the following cases, a disk needs to be defragmented:
1. A large number of files have been added.
2. Only around 15% of available disk space left.
3. A new program or a new version of Windows is installed.
4. Fragmentation exceeds 15%.

1. In the search box on the desktop, type “defragment”,

2. Click on “Defragment and Optimize Drive”.

3. Select the target drive, click on “Analyze” and wait until it’s done.

4. If the fragmented percentage is over 15%, you should launch defragmentation. Otherwise, you don’t need to do nothing.

Best disk cleanup and defrag tool in Windows 7, 8, 10,11

Is there any tool that can both clean and defrag disks on a PC? The answer is affirmative. AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard is an all-in-one disk manager software utility that helps completely clean your disk by wiping it or defrag a disk in only a few steps. Some people complain on the internet that sometimes, the Windows built-in defragmenter won’t open, while with the AOMEI tool, this glitch won’t appear at all. Besides disk cleanup and defragmentation, this software also supports other features including file shredding to completely erase a file, and HDD to SSD OS migration to improve the overall system performance.

Note: If you hate to defrag your hard disks every time manually, you can choose to defrag them daily, weekly, or montly with schedule defrag after upgrading the software to the professional edition.

Free download the best disk cleanup and defrag tool in Windows 7/8/10/11 to have a try!

How to clean a hard disk with it?

By wiping a hard drive, you can delete everything on it including even viruses. Here is a step-by-step guide on how to do it with this ultimate disk management utility.

Step 1. Install and launch AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard, right-click on the hard drive you want to clean, and select “Wipe Hard Drive”.

Step 2. Choose a wiping method. Here, I recommend the first one “Fill Sectors with Zero”. If you want to use the other 3, you must upgrade the software to the Pro edition.

Step 3. Hit “Apply” to commit the pending operation.

How to defrag a disk with it?

By defragging disks, you can improve a PC’s overall performance. AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard provides the most professional way to analyze, score, and defrag your disk. Unlike its counterpart Smart Defrag, there is no bundleware either.

Step 1. Install and launch AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard. Then, right-click on the disk you want to defragment and select “Disk Defrag”.

Step 2. Tick the target disk and click on “Analyze”.

Step 3. After it’s done, the target disk will be scored based on the fragmentation rate.

Step 4. Start the defragmentation by hitting the “Defrag” button.

Wait a short while before the defragment gets completed. Then, the disk will be scored again.

Conclusion

Is there any disk cleanup and defrag tool in Windows 10/8/7? In this post, you’ve learnt how to respectively use Windows inbuilt tools to clean disks and defragment them. In the final part of the contents, a powerful and impressive third-party software utility is introduced that helps clean a hard drive by wiping it and defrag a disk in clicks efficiently. As for me, after I tried this AOMEI Partition Assistant, my PC was really much smoother! Now, if you want to use this software on Server PCs, please try the Server edition.