defrag

[Holy Ji]

what exactly does a computer do when you defragment it? i've heard it'll run faster that way, but how...?

 

[GOTM]

well, hard disks retrieve data by the "arm" or the "reader" of the HDD moving to a sector that you specify while choosing data and waiting for the disk to spin while it's reading that sector.

when you defragment a HDD, you are condensing the sectors so that the "arm" of the HDD doesnt have to move as much to access the data that you want to access, meaning that you can open files and things slightly faster than normal. it doesnt make your computer run faster, but it makes accessing files on your hard drive faster, which i guess can give that same illusion.

all HDD are slow though, lol. people most of the time think its there pc but its usually not

 

[PohTayToez]

all HDD are slow though, lol. people most of the time think its there pc but its usually not

Spot on with the defrag description, but I would say that the cause of most 'slow' PCs is excess processes and programs hogging all of the processing power and RAM. People for some reason tend to think that a computer gets significantly slower as it ages, which in nearly completely untrue. It's just that over time people load it up with junk programs and what not, fail to perform basic maintenance, and then blame the computer. It's like complaining that your car doesn't run like it used to if you never change the oil and let the tires go flat.

 

[GOTM]

Spot on with the defrag description, but I would say that the cause of most 'slow' PCs is excess processes and programs hogging all of the processing power and RAM. People for some reason tend to think that a computer gets significantly slower as it ages, which in nearly completely untrue. It's just that over time people load it up with junk programs and what not, fail to perform basic maintenance, and then blame the computer. It's like complaining that your car doesn't run like it used to if you never change the oil and let the tires go flat.

thats very true

 

[Holy Ji]

oooooooooohhhhhhhh
it's coming to me...

 

[Haruka's DNA]

Here's a good description of what's going on...

You're using your computer and you save a file. Where does that file go? Your computer tells you that its "on your hard drive" but doesn't tell you any more than that. Well, where exactly DOES it go on your hard drive?

When you save a file, it isn't always put all together in one chunk on the disk. Instead, files are sometimes "fragmented" and scattered across the disk. So when you read from a file, that file is actually in many pieces in different sections of your disk. Your computer keeps track of where all the parts are behind the scenes so you don't have to worry about it.

But this fragmentation can be bad after a while. If things get too scattered, it can take time to read a file since it's in so many different places. Defragging is the process of taking all the files on your disk and rearranging them so that they are together again. Defragging can help with computer performance (though the effect is typically negligible) and also help free up space. It's really a just a good house cleaning task that you should do every so often before it becomes a problem.

Hope it helped!

 

[robusta]

Imagine if your workspace were cluttered with things in a disorganzed manner, it would take you ages to find what you needed. For instance if pages of a book were scattered all over. similarly when the files are stored, they are sometimes broken up into fragments and stored across the HDD in no particular order. This means the drive head works more to seek the files which in turn leads to slow loading of programs, opening files etc. Techies refer to it as a disease which after a certain level tends to cause system instabilty. The defragmenter helps put the fragments backtogether contiguously reduceing file access time.

 

[Cy Yunga]

thanks guys
shed a bright light on it fer me =]

 

[Holy Ji]

^
|

...?

but thanks guys nyways =]