defragmenting?

Question

for what is it?

how often should i do it?

is it ok if i defragment it everyday?

Answer 1

Picture a box of leggos all mixed up. Dump out that box of of leggos and start organizing them and putting them away by color, size, number of dots, and frequency use, etc. That's defragmenting.

When your computer does that, it organizes all the files, programs, etc. in a more convient way so they can be accessed easily.

Make sense?

Answer 2

Fragmentation is caused when an operating system breaks a file into pieces because there is not enough space on the storage device where the file was originally saved.

One example of this would be where a file was originally saved, then modified causing the file to be larger in physical space than first anticipated, the operating system will then break the file into 2 or more pieces and store them in different parts of the storage area.

The system would then keep a record of where the different parts of the file are stored, this is achieved through the use of a File Allocation Table (FAT) or similar file system such as NTFS.

Then, when the operating system requires the file again, it will query the file system (FAT/NTFS/or other) to find out where the different parts of the file are located on the partition (drive).

Defragmentation is the term given to the process of scanning the file system and rejoining the split files back into consecutive pieces.

The process of defragmenting can be time consuming, but it is one of the easiest ways to increase the performance of your PC, the frequency of which a PC should be defragmented will directly depend on the amount of usage.

Answer 3

In short its consolidating the data on your hard drive. As you write and erase data on your drive, little bits of the disk are left blank and are in small enough sizes that the computer cannot write anything meaningful to them, or if it can, it has to break larger chunks of information into multiple parts spread out over the disk. This causes the machine to work more to retrieve stored information because to load one file it has to spin more and retrieve parts of the file from multiple places. So, when you defrag the hard drive re-writes its files so that all the parts of the files are close by or contiguous to each other, this frees up unsuable space and puts all the parts of a file close, this reduces spinning of the drive and speeds up the load up time for your files.

Defragging is a good practice as it extends the life of the drive and makes the machine operate a little faster.

Answer 4

It is a type of program that:

1. puts all the "pieces" of a file or program together in one place, which
2. makes it faster for your computer to access it when you need it and
3. frees up an additional amount of space on the hard drive, by eliminating almost all the "partial" sectors used. (a computer hard drive can only put 1 file/program/etc., (or a piece of it), on any single sector, which results in a lot of "free space" being tied up in "partially used" sectors.)

I defrag all my systems at least monthly, and some that are used a lot, weekly.

ALWAYS make EXTERNAL backups BEFORE defragmentation, just "in case" the program goofs.
NOTE: If your drive has more than 1 partition, it will defrag only 1 at a time, so you CAN store the back-ups on a SEPARATE partition instead of externally, BUT I STILL recommend EXTERNAL back-ups REGULARLY in case the drive itself dies!!

Answer 5

In the context of administering computer systems, defragmentation (or defragging) is a process that eliminates fragmentation in file systems. It does this by physically reorganizing the contents of the disk in order to store the pieces of each file close together and in order (contiguously). It also attempts to create large regions of free space using compaction, to impede the return of fragmentation.

click here:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defragmentation

Answer 6

Hard disks store data in chunks called sectors. If you imagine the surface of the disk divided into rings (like the rings of a tree), and then imagine dividing each ring into pie-slices, a sector is one pie-slice on one ring. Each sector holds a fixed amount of data, like 512 bytes.
The hard disk has a small arm that can move from ring to ring on the surface of the disk. To reach a particular sector, the hard disk moves the arm to the right ring and waits for the sector to spin into position.
Hard disks are slow in computer terms. Compared to the speed of the processor and its memory, the time it takes for the arm to move and for a sector to spin into place is an eon.

Answer 7

It's like a librarian putting the books that were used by the public back in their right places on the shelf.
As you use your computer each bit and bite you use is not necessarily put back in its right place.
So over time it takes longer and longer for your processor to find it, slowing down the whole computer.
Defragging puts the bits and bites back in the correct spaces, making it quicker for the computer to locate them next time.

Answer 8

It clears up space on your hard drive,from temporary Internet files and such. Good thing to do now and then,but it takes some time depending on how much free space you have.Go to control panel,maintenance,to get there.

Answer 9

You're supposed to do it every few months. It just clears up stuff on your computer that you never use and makes it so you have more space to add new things and your computer can work a little faster.

Answer 10

To remove files and folders that have not been accesed or used in certain set amount of time.

So basicly it gains back memory.

:)