How to Defragment Your Hard Drive in Command Prompt

Last Updated: January 1, 2018

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.

Steps

1
Click the Start Button and type in 'cmd.exe' into the search box.
2
Right click on 'cmd.exe' and select the option 'Run as Administrator.'

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3
In the window that pops up, type 'defrag C: /U'
4
Wait for the defragmentation to complete. This will take some time depending on how large and fragmented your disk is.

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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