what Defragmentation is
In: Technology
Taking things that are separated and putting them back together.
If referencing computers, back when hard drives used circular platters and a magnetic needle to read and write data to sections of the platter. As you make and delete little bits of data on some sections of the platter, there is not enough room there, so data has to be stored on other sections. Then, when you need to read that data, you need to wait for the magnetic needle to travel all over the platter back and forth, increasing the time it take to access the data. Defragmenting took all that data and rearranged it like a bookshelf to keep everything in order and reduce travel of the magnetic needle to make reading the data quicker.
Nowadays, we mostly use solid state drives that don’t have the needle and platters and also have advanced file systems that automatically arrange the data for you so that defragmenting is no longer necessary.
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