I was born in 1973, got my first computer in 1994, defragging was part of regular maintenance. I can’t remember the last time I defragged anything, even though I have several devices with hard drives, including a Windows laptop. Has storage technology changed so much that defragging isn’t necessary anymore? Is it even possible to defrag a smart phone hard drive?
edit to add: I apologize for posting this same question several times, I was getting an error message every time I hit “post”… but from looking around, it seems I’m not the only one having this problem today.
In: 821
Oh I know this one. In a traditional hard drive, data was stored in strips around a disc. As things are deleted, the location of that storage didn’t change. So, if you deleted, let’s say, 2 programs or files worth 20 gigs, you would have two, 20 gig “holes” somewhere where those items once were stored. Now let’s say that this is the only remaining 40 gigs on your hard drive, and you installed a 40 gig file. That file would have to be split between those two empty spaces. You’d have 20 gigs of it somewhere, and 20 gigs of it somewhere else. They may not necessarily be inline with one another, but there is an “address” associated with those file locations so your computer can find them in storage. This can be inefficient, however, as your computer would have to be using two different locations in memory to access this information. Defragging is the process in which the empty space left behind by old delete files is removed. A process that has the hard drive basically remove a file from one location and relocates it to abut the previous file. Thus, if you had 60 gigs of space before defragging, you could have 5 gigs in one spot, 30 in another, 15 in another, and 10 in another. With that, if you save a 60 gig file, it is going to split it up into 4 different places in memory. Instead, defragging puts all your files end to end, each existing at a single address, so your new, 60 gig file can be stored at the end, all in one location.
I was born in 1973, got my first computer in 1994, defragging was part of regular maintenance. I can’t remember the last time I defragged anything, even though I have several devices with hard drives, including a Windows laptop. Has storage technology changed so much that defragging isn’t necessary anymore? Is it even possible to defrag a smart phone hard drive?
edit to add: I apologize for posting this same question several times, I was getting an error message every time I hit “post”… but from looking around, it seems I’m not the only one having this problem today.
In: 821
Oh I know this one. In a traditional hard drive, data was stored in strips around a disc. As things are deleted, the location of that storage didn’t change. So, if you deleted, let’s say, 2 programs or files worth 20 gigs, you would have two, 20 gig “holes” somewhere where those items once were stored. Now let’s say that this is the only remaining 40 gigs on your hard drive, and you installed a 40 gig file. That file would have to be split between those two empty spaces. You’d have 20 gigs of it somewhere, and 20 gigs of it somewhere else. They may not necessarily be inline with one another, but there is an “address” associated with those file locations so your computer can find them in storage. This can be inefficient, however, as your computer would have to be using two different locations in memory to access this information. Defragging is the process in which the empty space left behind by old delete files is removed. A process that has the hard drive basically remove a file from one location and relocates it to abut the previous file. Thus, if you had 60 gigs of space before defragging, you could have 5 gigs in one spot, 30 in another, 15 in another, and 10 in another. With that, if you save a 60 gig file, it is going to split it up into 4 different places in memory. Instead, defragging puts all your files end to end, each existing at a single address, so your new, 60 gig file can be stored at the end, all in one location.
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