Understanding Defragging

You may have heard about defragging or defragmenting your hard drive To understand fully, what this means, you need to understand how a hard drive is made up. A hard drive is made up of lots of little segments that store data. These segments are called sectors or clusters. Usually the size of each individual sector is 512 bytes although these can vary.

If we save a file to our hard disk we tend to picture it in our minds as being in one place. Whilst this can be true, most files will exceed the maximum size of the individual sector. Several sectors cam be used to store the information depending on the file size. This can span into hundreds or even thousands of sectors being used to store one file.

This is where the idea of defragging should become clearer. The sectors that we were talking about above do not necessarily sit on the hard drive side by side. Generally the next available sector will be used to store data. This could be somewhere else on the hard disk some distance away from the rest of the file. Your operating system will remember where the sectors are on the hard disk.

Every time you delete or move a file, sectors will become vacant and your operating system will refill them with fresh new data. Whilst your operating system will always remember where the individual sectors are, they will gradually become more and more spaced out from one another.

This means that your hard disk has to do more work to open a given file. If the file sectors are very spaced out then this can result in you computer having to do more 'thinking' to open the file - resulting in a longer time scale.

This is where defragging comes into play. The defragging utility usually comes with your operating system but many other external programs can be downloaded or purchased for the same. Running the defrag utility will analyse your hard disk and check for all the sectors that are not close together. The defrag will then move all the sectors of each file in line with one another, maximising the speed and efficiency at which your operating system can open them. This can mean the difference between a slow computer and a lightening quick computer.

Some people advise that a defrag is carried out regularly, other state that you should only use the utility when necessary. I personally only defrag when I start to notice that files are taking a longer time to load than what I am used to.

Defragging a computer is not a quick task. If you have not defragged for a while or have a lot of data on your hard drive then be prepared to wait several hours for the process to complete. It is also wise to not use your computer whilst this process is being carried out else generally the process will be restarted. It is also wise to be disconnected from the Internet or any other network when running this.

Whether you decide to use the defrag utility that comes with your operating system, in your system tools, or, download or buy a different version, understanding defragging and the defrag process is an essential part of keeping your computer running at it's most efficient and fastest speed.

About the Author
JBO Solutions is an online computer store stocking computer monitors, graphics cards and all other computer components at excellent prices.