# Running a Disk Cleanup and Defrag

It is important to periodically perform maintenance on your hard drive by running a Disk Cleanup and Defragmentation A process performed by hard disk drive utilities that reorganizes a hard disk or diskette drives data to help clean the drive and prevent a fragmented or scattered disk.. Not doing so can lead to poor performance and eventually errors accessing data. Windows includes easy tools for performing these tasks. To access them follow the steps below:

Disk Cleanup

1. Click Start > Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Disk Cleanup

2. Select your C: drive and click OK.

3. Check all of the boxes unless you specifically know of files that you do not want to remove, then click OK.

Disk Defragmenter

1. Click Start > Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Disk Defragmenter

2. Select your C: drive and click OK.

** This process can take several hours depending on how fragmented your hard drive is.

EA Tech Tip: | Make sure to run Disk Cleanup and Defrag on a regular basis.