How to Defrag a Windows XP Command Line
- 1). Close heavy programs that drain your processing power. The defragmenting process is a considerable burden on your computer and will take several hours for even a moderately low-volume hard drive. Windows will determine the location of each fragment of every file and reorganize these into contiguous pieces, thus effectively reshuffling almost your entire hard drive. To speed up the process, close all applications that you do not need to immediately access.
- 2). Click the "Start" button on the lower left side of your screen and select "My Computer." In the new window, right-click the drive you wish to defragment and click on "Properties" from the pop-up menu. If you have multiple drives that must be defragmented, such as C and D drives, both of which are actively used to store files, start with the smaller one.
- 3). Click on the "Tools" tab, located on top of the new window that opens up and select "Defragment Now." A new dialog window will open, asking you to confirm. Here, click "Defragment." After the process is completed, you can click on "View Report" to obtain further information on the defragmentation process or close the window to proceed without viewing the report.
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