How to Recover From a Full Fragmented Drive

When you store data on your computer, it isn't always written onto your hard drive sequentially. Often, documents and programs are cut into dozens of smaller pieces and distributed throughout your computer's memory. This process is known as fragmentation, and it can negatively affect performance. Your computer must scan its entire memory to find each fragment of information, which takes time. When dealing with larger documents and programs, the delay is noticeable. Once a drive is fully fragmented, even the smallest document can take a while to open. You can easily solve this problem using Windows' pre-installed Disk Defragmenter.

Instructions

1. Step 1

   Click "Start," then "Programs," then "Accessories," then "System Tools," then "Disk Defragmenter."

2. Step 2

   Click on the drive you wish to defragment and then click "Defragment."

3. Step 3

   Wait for the Disk Defragmenter to finish its job. First it will analyse your system, presenting you with a graph of your system's fragmentation. Red areas are fragmented, while blue areas are continuous. As the tool shuffles your data, it will move red files alongside each other so that they become blue and complete. If your system is fully fragmented, this process can take upwards of 30 minutes.

4. Step 4

   Once the process is complete, you will be presented with a summary stating how much of your data is continuous and how much remains fragmented. It is not uncommon to have between 1 percent and 5 percent fragmentation, even after the Disk Defragmenter finishes its work.

5. Step 5

   Close the Disk Defragmenter and open another program or document. You should notice an improvement in load time.