what exactly is a disc defragmenter? and what does it do?

Answer 1

Files get stored on your hard drive where ever they might fit.

They are not necessarily stored as one solid file. Files are put into the unused "holes" on your drive.

Files that are not stored in one contiguous section are called fragmented files. It takes more time for your processor to access fragmented files.

A defragmenter moves files around on your hard drive such that they are all kept together in contiguous blocks thus increasing the efficiency of your computer.

I recommend that you run defrag about once a month.

Answer 2

Windows Disk Defragmenter is a computer program included in Microsoft Windows designed to increase access speed (and sometimes increase the amount of usable space) by rearranging files stored on a disk to occupy contiguous storage locations, or defragmenting. In Windows Vista, Windows Disk Defragmenter now has an option to automatically run at scheduled times.

The purpose of Windows Disk Defragmenter is to optimize the time it takes to read and write files to/from the disk by minimizing head travel time and maximizing the transfer rate. The used techniques include:

1. Moving all the index or directory information to one spot. Moving this spot into the center of the data, i.e. one third of the way in, so that head travel to data is halved compared to having directory information at the front.
2. Clustering files around the directory area.
3. Moving infrequently used files further from the directory area.
4. Obeying a user provided table of file descriptions to emphasize or ignore.
5. Making files contiguous so that they can be read without unnecessary seeking.

Answer 3

Storage on your hard drive is broken down into individual units called blocks. If a file is too big to fit in a single block it will occupy multiple blocks. These blocks aren't necessarily contiguous -- for example, if you open a file and add text to it, it needs more space than it did previously, and that may mean it needs more blocks. If the next contiguous block is being used by another file, a non-contiguous block is used. Over time, files can get spread over more and more non-contiguous fragments, and the write heads on a hard drive have to move around more to get to each piece of the file. When you defrag, you rearrange the pieces of your file or files so that the write head doesn't have to jump around to get to the different pieces, making it faster and more efficient to read the files.

Answer 4

When files are written to your hard drive by the operating system, they are written randomly to the disk.
a disk de fragmentor moves the file to join them together in the same area of the hard disk

Answer 5

rearranges the files on the hardrive so they are in one piece (faster loading).