Windows 11 All-in-One For Dummies

Chapter 7

Maintaining Your Drives

IN THIS CHAPTER

Formatting drives

Freeing up storage space

Checking the disk for errors

Defragmenting drives

Checking the system's health

Windows 11, like all computer programs, will have problems. The trick lies in making sure that you don’t have problems too. Windows is notorious for crashing and freezing, or garbling things so badly that you’d think the screen went through a garbage disposal. This situation is especially true when Microsoft launches a major update to Windows, which brings not only new features, apps, and improvements but also new bugs and problems. Microsoft has poured lots of time, effort, and money into teaching Windows 11 how to heal itself. You can take advantage of all that work — if you know where to find it.

While detailed troubleshooting tips are shared in Book 7, Chapter 3, this chapter is devoted to the topic of keeping the drives in your computer in tip-top shape. You learn how to free up storage space, defrag or check ...