With Windows xp, how often defrag and disc clean up should be done?

7 Comments

1. Ashutosh says:

   September 29, 2009 at 4:33 pm

   Once every 2-3 weeks should do.
2. Geon says:

   September 29, 2009 at 4:33 pm

   Disk cleanup must be done once a month and defrag must be done once a week it will help you to defragment a bit faster

   Practically defragmentation does take a lots of time so you may schedule one Disk drive per week

   if yours HDD partitions are too big and too much of data please schedule the day when you absolutely don’t wanna work on your computer and just keep the timer On and Screensavers & Standby OFF and relax as much as you can
3. Tristam H says:

   September 29, 2009 at 4:33 pm

   For the best performance it should be done every day, but depending on much you are using your computer once a week is probably good enough. Also remember to do the disk cleanup first then do the defragmenter this will keep your files closer together on the hard drive making access faster.
4. the aussie :D says:

   September 29, 2009 at 4:33 pm

   for optimal performance,

   once a week for both would be your best bet,

   but as a min guideline, once a fortnight for the defrag, and once a month for clean up (these are as a minimum)
5. Spiritual but not religious says:

   September 29, 2009 at 4:33 pm

   As frogie said, it kind of depends on the size of your hard drive. It also depends on how often you add and delete files and programs. I defrag every couple of weeks.

   But here’s the problem. The defrag utility that comes with windows is entirely inadequate for performing the job on the larger hard drives especially as they become full. Anything above 80 gig’s and the defrag will take a long time if it’s ever able to finish. You often have to boot in "safe mode" so there is a minimum of processes running and conflicting or interrupting the defrag.

   I finally had to buy a commercial product to accomplish a total defrag.
6. chazzer says:

   September 29, 2009 at 4:33 pm

   If you click on the analize button it will usually tell you if that amount needs to be defragged or not. The last couple of times I have checked on mine, it told me the amount I had there didn’t need to be defragged.
7. Frogie says:

   September 29, 2009 at 4:33 pm

   Depends on how much hard drive do you have. I would say tol using the system tools once a month and let it tell you when to defrag. Unless you’re getting a lot of messages that you have run out of space. Then I would do it more often.