Windows has an inbuilt tool for defragmentation called Defragment and Optimize Drives, which automatically works and defragments your hard drive in background. When the software plays that file, in first case, it has to load the complete file only from two fragments (very few spots of hard drive) whereas in second case, the same software has to load the file its 100 different fragments (a lot more spots of hard drive), which will take more time to load.Ī defragmented file, folder, partition, and disk reduces the data access time, and increases the disk responsiveness. Fragments are the pieces in which a file is situated on the hard drive. Suppose these are two files of the same size, one has only two fragments whereas the other one has one hundred fragments. How does fragmentation impact system performance In this case, there will be fragmentation, and you’ll need to perform Defragmentation as well as Optimization. If you have added new data to your drive, after deleting the previous files at least one, then the chances are that the new data copied itself on those empty spots of the disk that belonged to the previously deleted files.In this case, too, there is not fragmentation, but you may want to optimize your hard drive, which will move the files and place them one after another in one block. If you have deleted some data but not pasted anything new after that, then there will be empty gaps due to the deleted files.

If you have pasted data only once on your drive, then it is completely optimized, and there is no fragmentation.Three cases to understand these concepts better The optimization moves the files, and places them one after another so that all of the data on your hard drive is present as one big block, and the rest of the drive is empty space. When the defragmentation has finished, and the files have been combined together and rearranged into fewer segments, there will still be empty spots in-between files. The Optimization option present in various defragmentation software fills the empty gap between files. The Defragmentation process locates and combines the file fragments together, and rearranges them into fewer fragments. What is Fragmentation, Defragmentation, and Optimizationįragmentation happens due to continuous copying and deletion of files.

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