"Hard disks are bound to die, we better create the cloud"
~Somebody said it
Your computer, be it a pc or laptop, contains a hard disk if not a solid-state drive. This is usually your form of permanent data storage and it usually has a weird phenomenon, well not weird but its common with the hard disk. This phenomenon is called Fragmentation. Fragmentation occurs when pieces of a file or files are scattered all over a hard disk. This is normal because your operating system especially Windows Operating System, that uses the New Table File System (NTFS) has that problem. Unlike Linux based OSes that use Ext4, windows machines require frequent defragmentation. Ext4 File systems try to fill the next available space unlike Windows' NTFS.
HARD DISKS VS SOLID STATE DRIVES
Hard disks contain moving parts thus are termed as mechanical drives; however, solid state drives have no moving part at all. SSDs have no moving parts thus are not affected by fragmentation as hard disks do. This is solely due to the fact that writing on a hard disk will happen to any available space so as to cut down on write times. SSDs have controllers that specify where data can be stored thus is not affected by
WHY IS FRAGMENTATION A BAD THING?
On hard disks, when files are scattered, the hard disk experiences delays or latencies as a result of the read/head arm having to wait for the disk platters to spin and reach the exact positions in which your data is stored. Since the files are scattered, the read/write heads have to wait for the exact positions to come under the read right heads. If the files are defragmented, the latency is decreased. Highly fragmented disks are very slow and cause your device to have lags especially loading programs and files from your hard disk.
NOW, LET'S DEFRAGMENT
If you are on a windows pc, well, you must definitely be on a windows pc, there is an in-built feature called Defragment and optimise drives. Simply go to your global search and Search for "Defragment and optimise drives". You will see the following window, select your partition and hit the optimise button and that's it. Do that to all your drives and boom! Your PC should be now blazing fast, or a abet fast than before.
THERE IS BETTER! DEFRAGGLER
For best results, get yourself a free copy of defraggler and if you love it, get the professional version key and support the work Piriform Limited does of having such an amazing tool. Defraggler does an amazing job where you can even see each file being defragmented.
Now go defragment your disk
See you soon on the next blog!
Karim K. Kanji
