Why is defragmentation good

This really adds up when reading lots of different files split into lots of different fragments. However, this isn't an issue with SSDs because the seek time are about 0. SSDs move data that's already on your disk to other places on your disk, often sticking it at a temporary position first. That's what gives defragmenting a disadvantage for SSD users. So, you get no performance advantage whatsoever, but you are using up some of the limited rewrite capability.

The answer is short and simple — do not defrag a solid state drive. Select the hard drive you want to defrag and click the "Change Settings" option. Check the box next to "run on a schedule" and select the "Weekly" or "Monthly" option. Defragmenting usually goes off without a hitch, but you might lose data if the computer loses power mid-process.

Dan Stone started writing professionally in , specializing in education, technology and music. He is a web developer for a communications company and previously worked in television. By Dan Stone.

Does Block Size Affect Fragmentation? Removable storage devices such as USB flash drives can also become fragmented. Disk Defragmenter in Windows rearranges fragmented data so your disks and drives can work more efficiently. Disk Defragmenter runs on a schedule, but you can also analyze and defragment your disks and drives manually.

To do this, follow these steps:. Open Disk Defragmenter by clicking the Start button. In the search box, type Disk Defragmenter , and then, in the list of results, click Disk Defragmenter. To determine if the disk needs to be defragmented or not, click Analyze disk. If you're prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.

Once Windows is finished analyzing the disk, you can check the percentage of fragmentation on the disk in the Last Run column. Basic maintenance of the hard drive is integral to keeping your PC from feeling sluggish.

But what kind of maintenance are you supposed to perform on your hard drive, and will it actually do more harm than good? Computer experts may give you the tip to defragment your computer, but what exactly does that mean?

Defragmenting is exactly what it sounds like — you are taking fragments of files on your hard drive and putting them back together again. Over the course of day-to-day use, your hard drive will automatically write parts of files wherever there is space for them, which sometimes means it writes in tiny spaces in between other files. You can think of the hard drive as an advanced version of a vinyl record. When a hard drive is defragmented, the pieces of the song are all over the record, and the needle needs to travel all over the record in order to play the song in order.

Not only that, but since it takes so much time for the needle to travel, it takes the hard drive longer to access the file.

Defragmenting the hard drive is like putting all the parts of the song back in order.