What Is Defragmentation?
Over time, the data on your computer's hard drives becomes scattered and spread out. This phenomenon, known as fragmenting, is a natural result of computer use which slows operations down due to inefficient placement of data on the hard drive.
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History
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Defragmentation has been a standard utility for Windows-based computers since Microsoft Windows 95.
Function
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Running a defragmenting utility moves data around the platters of your hard drive so that they are stored in sequential order, starting from the beginning of the hard disk.
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Basic Usage
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As you use your computer and perform basic tasks, such as file deletion or rewrites, fragmentation may occur.
Computer Performance Issues
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Over time, a computer's fragmentation may become severe enough to impact performance greatly because the read or write heads of the drive must skip around several areas to read or write files, causing delays.
Time Frame
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Depending on the size of your hard drives, running a defragmentation utility may take a few minutes or several hours.
Warning
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The new SSD (Solid State Disk) hard drive technology is not mechanical in nature; as these drives have limited write and read cycles, defragmentation may cause early drive failure due to the large number of rewrites needed to complete the process successfully.
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