Your computer can slow down when files become fragmented. This means that the clusters the file is stored in are not physically next to each other on the disk. The read/write heads have to travel further to read the file. By defragmenting, files are rewritten to the disk in contiguous clusters thus speeding up data retrieval.
The act of reshuffling your hard drive into some semblance of data order. When you save files to your hard drive, it doesn't go back where it came from, but instead is spread across any available space. Eventually this can make your computer seem a little sluggish.
Defragmenting your hard disk is a great way to boost the performance of your ...
The process of taking pieces of files that are scattered or fragmented on the hard disk and unifying them.
The process of organizing the data on a hard-disk drive, so that data can be located and retrieved as quickly as possible.
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.
As modern file systems are used and files are deleted and created, the total free space becomes split into smaller non-contiguous blocks. Eventually new files being created, and old files being extended, cannot be stored each in a single contiguous block but become scattered across the file system. This degrades performance as multiple seek operations are required to access a single fragmented file. Defragmenting consolidates each existing file and the free space into a contiguous group of sectors. Access speed will be improved due to reduced seeking. A nearly-full disk system will fragment more quickly. A disk should be defragmented before fragmenting reaches 10%.
Defragmenting your hard drive gets the information in the computer closer together so it is more efficient when accessing the information, making your computer run more efficiently and faster.
The process of putting a file in contiguous storage locations on a disk
When defragmenting a hard drive, a software utility is to arrange the order of your files so that each file is represented in a physically continuous segment. Defragmentation can improve your hard drive performance because it can read any particular file in a continuous stream instead of jumping here and there around a hard drive to locate each file segment or fragment. Reorganizes your hard-drive to operate with more efficiency. SCW Consulting offers a wide range of service contracts that will insure your computer systems are running at peak performance.
Microsoft defrag, or disk defragmenter, is a software utility designed to help chronologically order the data on the hard disk drive. The theory behind defrag is to place each program together instead of scattered throughout the hard disk drive, allowing the read-write head to access the data faster on the hard disk drive.
The process of un-fragmenting a hard disk. Fragmentation is where a file is repeatedly written to, erased and moved around a hard disk and becomes stored in across many different clusters, rather than in one place. This slows down access times and makes the computer run much slower and makes programs load much slower, as the computer must spend more time finding all the pieces of a file. The process of defragmenting is moving all files over 1 cluster on size so they are stored in adjacent clusters, making them easier to find and so quicker to load.
When a file is too large to store in a single location, your hard disk will automatically save different parts of the file to different places. It keeps track of where they are stored, so that it seems as if there is just one file. Over time, however, this fragmentation slows down your system. A defragmenter program will reposition the files so that the different parts of a file are stored next to each other, speeding up access. In Windows, you can run the defragmenter by going to Start Menu, choosing Programs, choosing Accessories, choosing System Tools and selecting the Disk Defragmenter. Source: TechSoup.org
To 'optimize' or re-write a file to a disk in one contiguous chain of clusters thus speeding up data retrieval.
To eliminate the fragmentation of a drive's data space.
Using the Disk Defragmenter application, you can fix all the files on your hard disk that have become fragmented . When many files become fragmented, your hard disk performance is slower, and the danger of file corruption is greater, so it is a good idea to defragment often. This is also known as Optimizing your hard disk.
A fragmented hard disk has parts of files stored in many different locations.To retrieve a file, the computer must search and retrieve all the fragments.Defragmenting a disk puts all the parts of each file together in one location.This reduces the time the computer spends locating files.
(also - optimize) to concatenate fragments of data into contiguous blocks in memory or on a hard drive.
Refers to the condition of a disk in which files are divided into pieces scattered around the disk. Fragmentation occurs naturally when you use a disk frequently, creating, deleting, and modifying files. At some point, the operating system needs to store parts of a file in non-contiguous clusters. This is entirely invisible to users, but it can slow down the speed at which data is accessed because the disk drive must search through different parts of the disk to put together a single file. Defragment refers to the process of getting rid of these fragments and optimises disk performance