What is disk defragmenter utility software?

Answer 1

Put simply - it's a utility that organises files on a disk. When you try to save a file, Windows simply looks for the first available piece of blank space - whether it's large enough to hold the whole file or not. It saves as much of the file as it can in the available space, then looks for another piece of blank space. This results in fragments of files being saved all over the disk.

Disk defragmenter programs use large areas of blank space on the disk to 'join up' all the fragments of each file into complete files, before writing them in one 'chunk'. Defragmenting the disk regularly - especially if the disk is more than 80% full keeps your computer running at optimal speed.

Answer 2

The function of a defragmenter is to clean up your drive or whatever. Over time, your hard disk becomes fragmented and your computer becomes less and less efficient. So when you use a defragmenter, it puts back together your files and makes your computer efficient again. It's pretty simple.

Answer 3

A program which comes standard with any version of windows. The program takes data stored on the hard disk and reorganizes it into more manageable locations.

Why? As you use your PC data moves around on the hard disc, but the data cannot always fit back in its original location so sometimes one piece of data is split up so that it is in two locations. Where the data is is stored in the directory for this disc drive. When the data is separated in this way is it called fragmented. It takes longer for the computer to access fragmented data because it must look for it in several locations. Also a heavily fragmented disc will hold less data that a de-fragmented disc.

Periodically the disc fragmentation program should be used. It can be found under the "system tools" folder in your "programs" folder off the start menu.

I can take several hours to defrag a badly fragmented drive.

Answer 4

As you delete and add files to the hard drive, the files become fragmented. Fragmentation means that a file takes up more than one physical location on the hard drive platter. This will mean that the read head will have to move to several places in order to retrieve the file, slowing it down. Defragging, gathers together all the split bits of file and moves them to one contiguous part of the disc, for easy retrieval.

If you want a metaphorical story about what defragmenting means, consider this. Lets say you have a family, but you all live in different parts of town. You would have to drive to one place to kiss your spouse, to another place to tuck your kids in bed, and maybe you have to pick everyone up to take to your kitchen. That would be very inconvenient. Now, what you would need to do would be to gather everyone, all your property, and all the pieces of your house and put them all in one geographical location. That would have to be done in at least 2 parts. You would have to physically relocate everyone and all your property, and you would have to update the legal records of everything. Defrag software does both. It physically moves the file parts around, and it updates the file tables which are much like the property records at the courthouse. It can be more complex than this if there is not enough room for all of your family and property to be in the same place. So that would mean that the neighbors would have to move too and own property elsewhere. It might require splitting up other homes a bit on a temporary basis. But eventually, everyone and all of their stuff are optimally located.

Answer 5

It 'organises' the disk. When the computer wants to write information onto the disk, it looks for the first available piece of free-space - whether that space is big enough or not. If the information is too big to fit that space - the computer writes what it can into that first space, then looks for the next piece of free-space... and so on until it's finished. This creates fragments of data around the disk. The defrag utility groups all the pieces of data together, and re-writes the whole lot to a place on the disk that has enough space to hold the entire program or file.

Regular use fo the defrag utility keeps data together, and slightly improves the speed of the computer.

Answer 6

The Purpose Of Disk Defragmenter is to improve over all performance of your system by arranging all the data in a aligned form to be accessed immediately