Surely, users of personal computers at least once in their lives have come across such concepts as fragmentation and defragmentation, but, unfortunately, even experienced users do not always know what it is and what it is for.
Fragmentation and defragmentation
Various kinds of information are saved, changed or deleted on a hard disk, flash drive and any other storage medium, if this happens without subsequent defragmentation, then there is fragmentation. That is, if there is a gap between the end of one content block and the beginning of another, then this means fragmentation. This concept should be understood as a chaotic order of storage (scatteredness) of files on media.
This is due to the fact that after the first deletion of a file that previously occupied a certain place on the media, there is space that is not filled with anything. New files fill the subsequent space. Thus, it turns out that a kind of gap appears between the files. It is impossible to see it without special software.
Defragmentation, in turn, allows you to organize the files on the media and after the completion of the procedure they will be stored exactly one after another, without any gaps. It is worth noting that there are several types of defragmentation, these are: full (after the procedure is completed, the files will be located as close to each other as possible) and partial defragmentation (gaps may remain between files). It is not necessary to defragment the disk if there are not many gaps between blocks (files).
Defragmentation software
To defragment the disk, special software is used, which is available in all versions of Windows operating systems. To do this, just open "My Computer", right-click on the disk that you want to defragment and select "Properties". Next, you should go to the "Service" tab, where you can see several items: "Disk check", "Disk defragmentation", and "Archiving". To start the defragmentation procedure, you need to open the appropriate section and click on the button to start the procedure.
In addition, specialized software such as the Auslogic Disk Defrag program can be used for the same purposes. The key feature of this program is a fairly simple and intuitive interface that even a novice PC user can handle. It is enough to download this program on the Internet (it is distributed free of charge), install it and run it. When the program window opens, you should select the partition to be defragmented and start using the Start button. The process itself can take from half an hour to several hours, depending on the debris and volume of your hard drive.
