2007-05-13 16:18:56 · 12 answers · asked by JudasHero 5 in Computers & Internet ➔ Other - Computers
When you save information to your hard drive (disk drive) the information is stored all over the disk. The more you save, the more fragmented (scattered) your disk becomes. Eventually when you recall certain info (files) or programs, they run slower or it takes longer to retrieve that information because your drive is constantly moving back and forth searching for all the required info which is stored in bits of clusters.
When you defrag, you take all the scattered info (clusters) and keep them close together so that your drive can easily access them. It speeds up your computer and frees up extra space on your hard drive.
Hope that helps in layman terms.
2007-05-13 16:24:05 · answer #1 · answered by gpszabo 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
When files are stored on Windows they are saved to the first available space. If they are longer than the space allows part of the file is saved in one space, then the next part is saved in the next space, this may still be too small, so it puts the next part somewhere else. Eventually you have files broken up all over the drive. This is fragmentation. Defragment picks up all the bits of file and groups them towards the end of the disk, then pulls up all the sections of each file and puts them together in the free space created at the front of the disk. This reduces the seek time on the drive as it's head does not have to jump backwards and forwards across the drive to access a file.
2007-05-13 23:29:01 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
How about an analogy.
Your TV room is like your HD. (hard drive) All the DVDs you have scattered about your TV room represents the data. When you want to watch a DVD you have to spend 5 minutes looking all over your TV room for where you left the DVD. Now when you "defrag" it's like taking all of the DVDs scattered about your TV room and putting them all in a nice neat little pile in alphabetical order. Next time you wanna watch a movie. You know exactly where it is and you can find it faster.
2007-05-13 23:25:38 · answer #3 · answered by Amrou 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Moves data around on your hard disk drive to improve speed/efficiency. It just rearranges/compacts your data and gets rid of fragments which can slow your computer down. You should defragment once a month if not per week.
2007-05-13 23:22:02 · answer #4 · answered by Jason C 1 · 1⤊ 1⤋
When you store information on your hard drive one file can have bits of it stored in different areas. To defragment you hard drive the system unites all the fragmented files so that retreval is more effeciant.
2007-05-13 23:23:18 · answer #5 · answered by ♥♥The Queen Has Spoken♥♥ 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
think of the computer as a room when you just move in a place and up pack all of your stuff and there is everything everywhere, a defraging puts all of the things in the right spots
2007-05-13 23:22:36 · answer #6 · answered by ROB D 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Disk Defragmenter is a utility that is used to improve your computer’s performance and reliability. Running disk defragmenter is kind of like performing a tune-up on your computer. Specifically, it organizes the files and programs that are stored on your PC’s hard drive so they’re no longer fragmented.
2007-05-13 23:21:55 · answer #7 · answered by p3k0@sbcglobal.net 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
magical defrag
makes sure your files are all in order and easy to find and load.
automatic defrag
2007-05-13 23:26:19 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Think of it as re-indexing your book
So when you need to find something, you only need to look at one section of the book and find all the info, rather than a bit from page 3, some from page 87 etc.
In computing terms, it makes Windows load files a bit quicker
2007-05-13 23:22:22 · answer #9 · answered by Cupcake 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
disk fragmenting is rearranging the information on the hard disk to that the information can be retrived more easily
2007-05-13 23:26:05 · answer #10 · answered by kcrx 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋