What happens when I use the disk defragmenter?
- Thread starter 2nuts4_u
- Start date
The Astroman
Active Member
Defragment:
Process of reorganizing files on disk to make segments contiguous and to recover wasted space between segments. Improves performance, saves disk space and may improve data security should a hardware failure occur. Required when disk files are frequently updated in place, particularly if portions are dynamically compressed.
So it's moving the files.
Process of reorganizing files on disk to make segments contiguous and to recover wasted space between segments. Improves performance, saves disk space and may improve data security should a hardware failure occur. Required when disk files are frequently updated in place, particularly if portions are dynamically compressed.
So it's moving the files.
The Astroman
Active Member
As much as u can.
suprasteve
New Member
I disagree, whenever you write to the drive, you're shortening it's life, albeit only a small amount. However, Windows has been known to screw up for no apparent reason after a defrag, I don't know why, just know that it does. I would shoot to defrag perhaps once a month, defragging doesn't help you at all if the vast majority of your files are continuous to begin with
Sacrinyellow5
New Member
I dont think I have ever done it....
Imagine a large library of books arranged in volumes. Also imagine that the librarian for this particular library re-shelves the books in a way which moves the individual books in the volumes further apart from each other. As more books are added to library, the further apart and more mixed up the books in the volumes become. Now imagine that you come to the library and want to check out an entire volume of books. You would have to search all over the library to find each individual book in the volume that you want. In computer terms, what is happening when the individual books are re-shelved in this way is called fragmenting, and this is what happens to your computer as you install programs, download files, or just use your computer in general.
When running programs that contains hundreds of files, fragmenting can degrade the performance of your computer. As the clusters of files on your hard drive become fragmented, they grow further apart and it takes longer for your computer to find and assemble all the pieces necessary to run the programs. This is where defragmenting comes in. It rearranges the files on your hard drive so they are back in order, which cuts down on access latency (the time it takes to access your files). It is as if the library has hired a new librarian who goes through and arranges the books so that the volumes are intact and contiguous. This would greatly reduce the time it takes to find whole volumes or individual books in those volumes.
When running programs that contains hundreds of files, fragmenting can degrade the performance of your computer. As the clusters of files on your hard drive become fragmented, they grow further apart and it takes longer for your computer to find and assemble all the pieces necessary to run the programs. This is where defragmenting comes in. It rearranges the files on your hard drive so they are back in order, which cuts down on access latency (the time it takes to access your files). It is as if the library has hired a new librarian who goes through and arranges the books so that the volumes are intact and contiguous. This would greatly reduce the time it takes to find whole volumes or individual books in those volumes.
