Before defining
what it means and what are the advantages of defragmenting a hard disk, we must
review what disk fragmentation is, which generally occurs in the
storage unit of our PC every time the disk automatically performs the ordering
of the files that are stored in it.
Each of these
files is composed of small fragments, which are modified
every time we write on a file or when they are eliminated; that is, with
each access to a file, it is modified and causes what is called fragmentation
hard drive.
As time goes by, each of these
modifications in each of the fragments of the files stored on
the hard disk produces spaces or small areas in the storage unit that generate
fragmentation of the unit.
As a consequence of this
fragmentation, some inconveniences may arise in the normal operation of the
hard disk, including behaviors such as slowing down when reading and writing
files, reduction in real storage space, the slowdown in
processes with applications and in the operating system, such as thus also reduction
in the useful life of the hard disk
For all these
reasons, experts recommend that users periodically carry out what is known
as hard disk defragmentation, which is one of the most effective methods
to make the storage unit of our PC work correctly again.
Broadly speaking,
we could say that hard disk defragmentation consists of a process
through which the spaces or areas that are created during fragmentation are
eliminated, and at the same time, the files that are stored on the said unit
are accommodated.
With this
process, when the spaces or areas created by the fragmentation of the hard
disk are eliminated, the stored files become contiguous; that is, there
are no unusable spaces within them; that is, they will no longer be divided
into different fragments within the disk.
In this way, thanks
to the defragmentation of the hard disk, we can improve
the performance of the unit and the behavior of the entire computer, since
on the one hand, by eliminating the spaces between the file
fragments, it is possible to read, and the writing of them
is streamlined.
Likewise, with the defragmentation
of the hard disk, we managed to recover the wasted memory,
and from this menu, we can recover free space from the available
disk that the fragmentation did not allow us to use. With
all this, we will also be able to significantly increase the useful life of the
hard disk.
