Will disk cleanup or disk defragmenter mess my computer up?

8 thoughts on “Will disk cleanup or disk defragmenter mess my computer up?”

1. Peacemaker says:

   January 24, 2011 at 3:55 pm

   If your hard drive has no pre-existing hardware faults, then running disk cleanup and defrag will not mess up anything.

   Also a good idea to run chkdsk once to scan for file system errors before a defrag if you have never run either of these before. You may need to reboot for this, and it may take a while.

   For the defrag part of things, the best way to handle file fragmentation over the long term is with an automatic defragmenter. Unlike the resource intensive scheduled/manual defrag, auto defrag will not bog down your PC, so you can always use the PC while defrag is running silently in the background. Unlike the manual/scheduled defrag methods, auto defrag will continuously protect the drives against the performance diminishing fragmentation disease, so it’s much more effective.

2. bolder says:

   January 24, 2011 at 3:55 pm

   Whenever you download lots of files ( or delete them for that matter ) the HDD is likely to get fragmented, which means files are not stored contiguously on the drive. A defragmenter puts these fragments back together sequentially.so that the HDD does not have to work more in order toread that file.
   Defragmenting does not delete anything.If the power gets cut during the defrag, it may be dangerous. Besides that there is no risk. In fact there are some very efficient defragmenters with a lot of advanced features which save time and effort needed in manual defrags, you can google for trial versions. High levels of fragmentation (esp if your drive is full) increase chances of drive problems.

   A diskcleanup gets rid of unwanted files to create more room and cleanout the drive. Its always good to do diskcleanups regularly and defrag while there is enough free space, in fact make sure you have atleast 15% free space at all times. Not only does it take lesser time, it also keeps the drives free from stress and increases stability and life.

3. Deepak S says:

   January 24, 2011 at 3:55 pm

   disk defrag deals with the files which are fragmented and which are placed far. It puts the files closer and organised them and thus would increase the pc performance.

   For better defrag always choose SAFE MODE and then run DEFRAG.

   Disk Defrag reduces the chance of Harddisk crashing bcause files are organised and pc can read it quickly.

4. Richie says:

   January 24, 2011 at 3:55 pm

   Disk defrag will put files closer together on the hard drive. This will help in performance somewhat. Disk clean up will remove files from certain directories. You can select what directories or options.

5. Colanth says:

   January 24, 2011 at 3:55 pm

   Disk cleanup will delete unneeded files, so it will give you more space. (So will emptying your recycle bin.) Defragmenting will just put all the fragments of each file in a contiguous block, so the computer will be able to access the files faster, so it has nothing to do with space.

   Neither one will mess anything up.

6. Barbie V says:

   January 24, 2011 at 3:55 pm

   I defragment every 6 months or so – has not done any damage at all

7. znelson24 says:

   January 24, 2011 at 3:55 pm

   A disk defragmenter removes fragments in your storage (which slows down HDD performace and consumes space) so I would say it would mess up your computer. I have my PC defraged every week.

8. LaTasha C says:

   January 24, 2011 at 3:55 pm

   No it will not hurt your computer before you start to defragment analyze it and it will tell you if it needs it or not and the disk clean up just gets rid of the files that aren’t really needed

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