What is a Fragmentation ?

In the computer context, the term fragmentation usually refers to data files (data fragmentation) or blocks of unused space (external fragmentation) that have been broken up and stored in non-adjacent sections of a hard disk drive.

Visual representation of estimated fragmentation on a hard disk drive.
An analogy
Imagine that you wrote a 35 page term paper and stored each printed page in a different drawer or folder of a file cabinet. If you wanted to read it, you would have to open multiple drawers and folders, retrieve all the pages and then reassemble them in the right order. This would take longer and require more work than pulling the paper from a single folder, and it would obviously have been better if the paper had been kept in one place. Although you don’t see it happening, when a computer retrieves a fragmented file it must do something very much like this.
Fragmentation is a common problem that affects computer performance
Fragmentation is a by-product of normal computer activity. When a file is deleted, for example, the operating system frees the disk space used by the deleted file for other uses. When you later create and save a new document, the computer may attempt to store it in that free space. But if the new document is larger than the deleted one, the computer may fragment the new document by storing part of it in the space occupied by the old one - as much of it as will fit the old space - and the rest in one or more entirely different parts of the hard disk drive. This can also occur when a file grows too large for the disk space originally allocated for it.
Most operating systems are designed to avoid fragmentation - the Linux operating system apparently does this very successfully - but some amount of fragmentation occurs almost every time you use your computer. Over time computer performance can be severely affected, especially since hard disk drive operations are among the computer’s slowest processes (or bottlenecks).
Fragmentation solutions
Many computer operating systems (including Microsoft Windows) include a utility to "defrag" hard disks. Windows defragmentation utilities are also available from third party vendors, such as PerfectDisk, Diskeeper, or the freeware Auslogics Disk Defrag. These utilities can reduce fragmentation and improve performance with regular use, and most can be scheduled to run automatically.

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Enjoy...!!!!

Shantanu

Posted in: Hardware