Defragment hard disk in Windows 8

A lot is new in Windows 8 - you can now defragment your hard drive differently. You can find out how it works and what has changed in this step-by-step guide.

Defragment hard drives in Windows 8 and Windows 8.1

With Windows 8, you no longer defragment, you optimize:

1. Select a drive using the Explorer and right-click on it.
2. A menu appears in which you click on the bottom item "Properties".
3. Select the second tab "Tools".
4. Now you can "optimize" your hard drive, which is equivalent to defragmenting under older versions of Windows.

Alternative: Defragment drives under Windows 8 or 8.1

As an alternative to the method described above, you can open an overview of your drives and select which drive you want to defragment.

1. Open the search bar by simultaneously pressing the [WINDOWS] + [S] buttons.
2. Enter "defrag" in the search bar and select the entry "defrag".
3. You now get an overview of your drives and can analyze or optimize them. Optimization is equivalent to defragmentation.

SSD hard drives are often installed in ultrabooks and newer laptops. Use the process less often here: When defragmenting, the hard disk carries out many write processes, which causes the SSD to wear out. In the next practical tip, we will explain when and whether defragmenting SSD hard drives is worthwhile.