How Do I Know If My Disk Needs Defragmentation?

Some customers wonder, "How do I know if my disk needs defragmentatio?" Defragmentation can keep disks in good condition, but it has significant limitations. Here's a post to help you learn about degradation.

Posted by @Lucas December 17, 2024 Updated By @Lucas June 19, 2024

Fragmentation and defragmentation are common terms related to the organization of files on a hard disk. Over time, files on a disk can become fragmented, meaning they are stored in different scattered locations rather than in continuous clusters. This fragmentation can lead to slower access times when the computer needs to read or write those files, as the reading/writing heads have to search for the scattered fragments.

Defragmentation is a process that helps maintain the hard disk in an organized state, improving performance and reducing loading times. By rearranging the fragmented files in an orderly manner, the seeking time of the hard disk is reduced, leading to faster access to programs and files.

Regularly defragmenting the hard disk is essential to keep it working efficiently and prevent data loss or damage caused by fragmented files. Windows 10 provides a program called "Defragment and Optimise Drives" to help users defragment their hard drives.

For normal users, it is generally recommended to defragment the hard disk once every 3 months, although the frequency may vary depending on how heavily the computer is used. If the computer is used intensively for more than 8 hours a day, defragmenting every two weeks might be more appropriate. For business, enterprise, or government users, defragmentation once a month is advisable, and immediate defragmentation can be considered if the computer is performing significantly slow.

If you worry that the Windows built-in tools can’t clear all fragments, you can also try AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional. The “Disk Defrag” function can help you easily defrag all disks and also allows you to set schedule to perform automatic defrag when your PC isn’t busy.

AOMEI Partition Assistant

The Best Windows Disk Partition Manager and PC Optimizer

After you install the app, find the disk you want to defragment (take Disk 0 as an example), right-click and select Disk Defrag. All NTFS partitions on the disk will be listed. Because this function can only run on NTFS partitions currently. You can click Analyze to check partition. Wait a moment, Your partition status will be expressed in the form of scores. You can click “Details” to view more information about the analysis results, or you can directly click “Defrag” to perform defragment.