Fragmented Files etc.

[Kiya11]

Could someone explain to me whether fragmented files are good/bad for one's PC?

Also, likewise, whether defragmented files are good/bad?

Thanks!

[vehelpfulguy]

When we look at the files on our computer we see the names of all the files in a nice alphabetical order.

But under the covers the files are scattered all over the hard disk and Windows sorts it all out for us.

Sometimes, if a file is large, then Windows may split the file up into smaller sections and place these sections on different parts of the hard disk.

Over time, as files are added and deleted and moved on your hard disk you finish up with files all over the place, and all sorts of empty spaces between the files.

This slows Windows down because every time it wants to access files it has to move read heads all over the disk, first to the centre, then to the edge, then back to the centre etc.

This is called a fragmented disk.

After a time is it good to defragment a disk.

When this is done Windows "tidies up" the disk, moving the files into a nice tidy order, removing all the unwanted spaces and so on.

Depending on the disk size this can take hours, maybe all night.

So to answer your question - Fragmented files is BAD.

Defragmented files is GOOD

(I get the feeling this may be a homework from school or college)

[ACtheTROLL]

The basics are described here

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/tutorials/tuto rial55.html#frag

It's relatively simple ... but tedious to type out in detail
a formatted disc is divided into lots of little boxes
(say 512 bytes)
file1.... file 2
xxxxxxyyyyyyy
are both less than 512 bytes ... so each file takes up 1 box

the next time you work on file 1 and make it bigger
(600 bytes) it need two boxes
file1.... file 2....file1
xxxxxxyyyyyyyxxxxxxx
hey presto! fragmentation!!!!

and it's prety much all bad news .... to access the file ... the head needs to access two different boxes
on a big file ... badly fragged the boxes could be anywhere on the disk so it takes longer to find and access each box.
however
if the boxes are all lined up .... the heads quickly find each box ... speeding up the whole process

[fo3nix]

Your files are stored in a nice order on your hard drive.

Then, when you open a file (read it), your computer gets it out of storage to look at. When you close it or save it, it puts it back -- but perhaps not in exactly the same nice neat way it once was.

This is fragmentation. Instead of a file being nice and orderly, it can be split up into different fragments, around the disk.

This is bad, because reading the file again means that the computer has to look in more than one place.

So, defragmenting your computer will put things in their place again, hopefully improving performance (slightly).

This was more important on older systems (with older file systems). XP, Vista (running NTFS, most do), as well as many GNU/Linux file systems, and Mac OS X file systems (HFS+) do defragging on their own, keeping things tidier anyway, so having to manually defrag your disk once every few weeks isn't required any more.

The exception to this is if you're dealing with massive files regularly (video editing, etc.), or lots and lots of very small files.

[Kiya11]

Thank you very much, people.

And no, to answer "vehelpfulguy's" theory, this is not a homework, but a query from a confused person.