Everyday one can hear people complaining about Windows Vista and the troubles it causes its users. But it is really a good operating system with its bundled disk fragmenter. But then why you should perform a disk defrag? Disk defrag manages your files in disk volumes and restore your system’s efficiency.

Defragmenting refers to the process of relocating your system files which needs to be together. When new files and programs are installed and run by your system then some old files get displaced and it takes much time for your system to search them when required. The main problem with the defragmenter of windows XP was that you can not schedule your Defragmentation and you have to take care of it yourself. This screw was fixed by Windows Vista in which Defragmentation is scheduled for every week by default.

The obvious question which comes to mind is that How to Defrag in Windows Vista? Following are the steps to be followed to defrag you local volumes.

  • Click on start and then move on to all programs. In the list you will find accessories.
  • Right click the command prompt in the accessories list and choose run as administrator.
  • If you want to defragment your C drive then type the following in the command line and press enter key: defrag c: -a this will tell you the amount of fragmentation of your disk
  • Vista will give you a suggestion at the bottom whether your disk need fragmentation or not.
  • If you want to defragment your disk fully then you have to type the following command in the command prompt : defrag c: -w
  • The above command will start your defragmenter and it is best not to run any program or application on your computer at this time.

Widows Vista provides some extra features for Defragmentation, which is not provided by any other operating system. You can specify various options, whether you want to defrag some specific volumes or defrag it completely. Following are the syntax of some options:

defrag <volume> -a [-v]
defrag <volume> [{-r | -w}] [-f] [-v]
defrag -c [{-r | -w}] [-f] [-v]

  1. <volume> specifies the drive which needs to be defragmented or analyzed for fragmentation.
  2. -c defragments all the local drives on your computer.
  3. -a gives fragmentation analysis only
  4. -r performs partial defragmentation by consolidating fragments smaller than 64 MB.
  5. -w fully defragments a disk irrespective of the size of fragments.
  6. -f parameter forces defragmentation when the space is low.
  7. -v gives a detailed fragmentation and defragmentation analysis.