Got a slow old computer? Over time hard drive’s get fragmented over time and they slow down. What does this mean and what can we do to reverse the process? Read on and find out.
What is fragmentation?
In order to understand disk fragmentation we have to first understand how a hard drive works. Whenever you save, move or edit files on your computer you are physically writing data onto a spinning disk inside your computer called a hard drive. This data isn’t written in an orderly fashion as one might expect. The data is written in little packets all over the disk, so one file may be located in several different places on the disk.
There is a single file that points to all these other packets when you want to call up the file to be deleted. When you delete that file, all the data isn’t deleted. Only the file that points to all the packets is deleted. This marks these areas to be overwritten, thus freeing up the hard drive space.
Fragmentation is when all of these packets start getting slow to be called up on your hard drive. Defragmentation organizes these packets and speeds up your hard drive speed, the slowest part of your computer.
When does it occur?
Whenever you save, move or edit a file fragmentation occurs. It is unavoidable.
How do I stop it? What programs can I use?
Windows comes with free disk defragmentation tools. You can find it in programs>accessories>system tools.
You can also find many disk defragmenters online. I prefer Auslogics Free Disk Defragger.
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