Benefits of Defragging of Hard Drives

Defragging or defragmenting hard drive on a regular basis increases the overall health and speed of computer system. Defragging is a process of reducing the amount of fragmentation. Fragmentation makes inefficient use of storage space, reducing storage capacity and performance of the hard drive.

How fragmentation happens?

When a new file is saved to a hard disk, it is placed in the free space at the end existing saved data till the hard disk is full or you delete some previous files. When a file is deleted from the hard disk, it leaves a free space. More files deleted, more free space is created. Over the time, free space is spread all over your hard drive in small amounts here and there, not in contiguous section in one spot. This stage is termed as disk fragmentation and here starts the problem, which also causes file fragmentation. File fragmentation means a single file isn’t located in the same physical location on the disk, but is scattered around. It slows down the speed of computer as it has to look in many different places to open a file.

What happens while defragging?

The process of defragging consolidates fragmented files on your computer’s hard disk.  It rearranges the data and reunites fragmented files on your hard disk to make it run efficiently.

Why is defragging of hard drives essential?

To improve the performance speed – Programs run faster and files loads quickly when the data is clubbed together. Quick access can be made when the data is grouped together as computer need not search the data all over the disk to perform a task.

To extend the life of hard drive – Mechanical parts of hard drive travel less when the disk is defragmented. A system needs to work hard to collect fragmented information across the disk. Defragmenting can help a hard drive last longer.

To obtain high level of security – Anti-virus program can scan files in small time when the drive and files are less fragmented. It can capture virus quickly and delete them before they spread.

To improve battery life – Since defragging simplifies the file retrieval function, the energy used also decreases.