Why you Should
Defrag Your Hard Drive
Disk data fragmentation requires that you defrag the hard drive. Disk fragmentation is a process that occurs as files are created and deleted over time. All hard drives have a tendency to become fragmented. Disk fragmentation will slow down file access times and cause the hard disk to work harder.
What is fragmentation?
A sector is the smallest unit of data that can be retrieved from a hard drive. A file is made up of one or more sectors. If all the sectors of a file are next to each other, then the file is contiguous. If the sectors of a file are scattered in different parts all over the disk, then the file is fragmented. All of the sectors on the disk that contain parts of files are called allocated sectors. The sectors that are available for new files are called free sectors.
A newly formatted hard dive has all of its free space in one contiguous block. As new files are created, they are placed on the hard drive in order, such that all the sectors of the file are next to each other. If a file is deleted and the resulting free sectors are between other allocated sectors, then that free space is called a hole. These holes on the disk can lead to fragmentation because most file systems will usually place a new file in that hole the next time a file is created. If the new file is too large to fit in the hole then the remaining part of the file will be placed elsewhere on the disk.
Fragmentation is caused not just through deleting and creating new files; adding more data to an existing file will also lead to file system fragmentation. For example, editing a word document will lead to fragmentation if the current location does not have enough room to contain the additional data.
A highly fragmented disk will cause many problems for your system. It will make everything slower. Backups will be slower, program starts will be slower, and boots will be slower. If that isn’t bad enough, fragmentation will also make your disk drive work harder because the disk heads will have to move all over the platter to read all the parts of one file. All this extra work will just make your disk wear out that much sooner.
How do Run Defrag
Defrag is also the name of the Windows disk defragmentation utility. You can find this utility in Windows XP by going through the start menu to:
Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Disk Defragmentation
You can also start defrag by going to My Computer, right clicking on the disk you want to defragment, selecting properties, clicking on the tools tab, and then clicking on the Defragment Now button.
The process of defragmentation requires at least 15% free disk space to work effectively. If you have less free space you will need to delete some files or consider getting an extra disk. In general, your system disk needs to have some free space defrag the hard drive.
Better Defragment Hard Drive Utilities
Partition Commander 10 will also defrag a hard drive.
Return from Defrag Hard Drive to Disk Utilities
Return from Defrag Hard Drive to Data Recovery
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