Defragmentation hard drive on your PC, in this article we will figure out what this process is. Why do many people talk about it as an opportunity to speed up the computer? And also, why run defragmentation at intervals of several months and how will this actually affect the performance of the operating system?
And of course, I will not lose sight of the version of many users who “shout” on every forum that defragmentation for a computer is actually a very harmful process. I will tell you the truth and everything in my head will form a single, correct picture.
What is defragmentation?
Defragmentation is a process that allows you to “arrange the files stored on your hard drive into the most orderly structure, which in turn facilitates faster reading and writing of files”
And here, not even all confident PC users understand what is happening, but what should beginners do? Let's figure out once and for all what this cunning process is that allows you to speed up your computer.
Let's start with the fact that all the files that we write to the computer end up on HDD, where they are stored until we need them again. You need to know and understand that initially all your data is recorded in an orderly manner, one by one in "cells" hard drive, they are also represented as clusters. So what’s wrong with this, files are recorded in order and recorded, they don’t bother anyone.
This process takes a lot of time. It depends, of course, on the number of files on your PC, the density of the mess and the overall power of the computer. This will most likely take several hours.
Watch the video: a practical lesson on defragmenting a hard drive.
I hope after so much material and watching the video it became clear to you how and what needs to be done correctly. At least you definitely got the basic knowledge. In principle, this could be the end of the article, but still below I will answer another very important question.
Why is it harmful to defragment a computer in some cases?
Imagine the situation, you have been living with basic knowledge for several years now, periodically, you speed up your computer by doing defragmentation. And everything seems to be fine, but the day comes when on some forum or from friends you hear categorically: “Defragmentation of a hard drive is harmful.” Panic begins, someone simply argues and says that I always do this and nothing, everything works fine.
What to do in this case, who to believe, this is the decision I will try to convey to you. But in fact, every statement can be true. But within the framework of a specific situation. What's the catch and what are the situations?
Yes, everything is simple really. There are two types hard drives and in one embodiment, doing defragmentation is useful and necessary, but in the second, doing it is not necessary and even harmful. Below I will simply write which disks can be accelerated and which are not necessary. All you have to do is find out what type of hard drive is in the current computer configuration and make one of two possible decisions.
So if you have:
- HDD format hard drive - defragmentation is useful and necessary.
- SSD format hard drive - defragmentation is unnecessary and harmful.
If something doesn’t work out or there are new questions, I’m waiting for you in the comments.
In this material, you will become familiar with such an important maintenance operation as defragmentation. Many novice users (and not only) often neglect this function, which over time leads to an increase in read/write time and, accordingly, a decrease in computer performance. But before answering the question, what is disk defragmentation and how to do it, let's look at the principle of writing files to disk.
How are files written to the hard drive?
To put it simply, it is not written to the disk in its entirety, but is “folded out” into cluster cells, which represent the minimum space for storing information on the hard disk. Those. the file is split into pieces corresponding to the cluster size.
Disk structure: (A) track (B) geometric sector (C) track sector (D) cluster
Initially, as long as there is enough free space on the disk, the file is written to the clusters sequentially - one after the other. As the storage medium fills up, there may be a shortage of sequential clusters (especially in the case of recording large files), in which case the system begins to look for free cells and distribute parts of the file among them, which takes more time. The same is true when reading a file written in scattered clusters - it takes time to find all parts of the file on the disk and assemble it. It turns out that fragments of the file are scattered here and there - it is fragmented, and there can be many such files. When you delete a fragmented file, empty scattered clusters remain in its place, into which other files will again be scattered when they are written. All this significantly reduces computer performance and hard drive resource.
What is disk defragmentation?
Disk defragmentation is designed to collect scattered parts of files into continuous, sequential clusters as much as possible. We can say that the system will try to assemble the fragmented file into a single whole. Empty scattered clusters will also be connected into serial chains during this process. In addition, defragmentation will move most of the data closer to the beginning of the disk. The defragmentation operation speeds up program launches and data loading. Before starting the process, it is recommended to remove unused programs and data.
How often should you defragment?
The frequency of defragmentation depends on the size of your hard drive, how much you use it, how full it is, and how often you install and uninstall programs.
How to defragment a disk?
Let's look at the defragmentation process using Windows 7 as an example, as the most common operating system at the time of publication of the article. The Windows system has a standard program with which you can analyze the selected local disk to determine the need to defragment it and directly start the process itself. The fastest way to run it is:
Open folder " Computer" Start—>Computer.
Choose local disk. By clicking on it with the right mouse button, call context menu, in which select “ Properties" At the top of the properties window, select the " Service" and click on the button " Run defragmentation»
In the defragmenter window that opens, click on the “ Analyze disk", after which the process of checking the disk for the degree of fragmentation will begin. After finishing the analysis, the program will show how fragmented the disk is. If the degree of fragmentation is above 15%, you must press the “ Disk Defragmenter" and wait for the program to finish.
The defragmentation program can also be launched using the Main Menu. To do this, click on the button " Start", select from the menu " All programs«, « Standard«, « Service" and left-click on the icon " Disk Defragmenter»
Don't forget to carry out this procedure regularly, and your hard drive will be pleased with its speed. In conclusion, it should be noted that for high-speed solid state SSD Defragmentation of disks is not necessary, because they have a different principle of storing information. SSD drives will be discussed in the following materials.
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What is hard drive defragmentation? You've probably heard the expression - disk defragmentation? What is it and what is it for? As you know, all information on a hard drive is recorded in so-called clusters. A cluster is a cell of a certain size in which some piece of a file is stored. Just a piece, because... the cluster is very small. The cluster size varies depending on the size of the hard drive and the type of application used. file system.
At hard formatting disk is divided into clusters. Without this procedure, you will not be able to install an operating system on it, which means you will also not be able to work with such a disk.
Each cluster also has sectors. If the file is large, then it is written to clusters in parts. If the hard drive is new or just formatted, then writing to it occurs in a chain (in order).
And if you have been working with this disk for a long time, installing programs or creating new files, and then deleting them, then the chain of clusters is broken. Where particles of a file have been deleted, holes (empty clusters) are formed.
Therefore, the recording of the next file will be scattered across all these “holes”. One part of the file may be at the beginning of the disk, the second in the middle, and the third somewhere at the end of it. This state of the disk is called fragmentation .
Not only does fragmentation begin to slow down the computer, but the hard drive is also not used rationally.
In this case, when you open such a file, the hard disk head begins to intensively search for all parts of this file throughout the disk. Naturally, its operation slows down, and constant operation in this mode leads to rapid wear of the read heads.
All this work resembles a turntable with vinyl discs. Only there the head goes in a spiral and the disc (they used to be called records) is played gradually from the outer edge to the inner.
And then the hard drive head jumps from one sector or turn to another, collecting the entire “song” in parts. And thus the head can move first to the beginning, then to the end, then to the middle of the disk until it collects the entire file in order.
And if all the pieces of the file were in order, then the work would be much faster, and wear on the head would also be minimal. It turns out that as we delete, write and rewrite, our hard drive wears out, which has a very bad effect on its “health”.
Is it possible to help the disk work faster and not get sick? Can! To do this, it is necessary to carry out preventive work with it at least once a month, i.e. defragmentation disk . When defragmenting, all parts of files are collected in order and moved to the beginning of the disk. Therefore, the heads will not have to search for them for a long time and strain.
How to defragment a disk
If you are a novice computer user, you can initially carry out this procedure using the built-in Windows utilities Defragmentation .
INWindowsXP it is located at: Start – Programs – Accessories – System Tools – Disk Defragmentation .
On Windows 7 this program is located at: Start – All Programs – Accessories – System Tools – Disk Defragmenter . The seven has the ability to set a time for automatic disk defragmentation.
Open this program, select your hard drive and click the big button at the bottom Disk Defragmenter . And wait for the result. If you have done a lot of bloat on your hard drive, the first procedure may last several hours. Still depends on the disk space and speed of your computer. It is better to start this procedure at night or when you do not need a computer for work. But this is at your discretion.
In the future it is better to use it for defragmentation third party programs, because They “treat” your disc much better, which means it will “live” longer. There are a lot of such programs on the Internet. I can recommend Defraggler And O&O Defrag Free.
If you use third-party programs, you will be asked to indicate the cluster size. For file NTFS systems It is better to specify a size of 4 kb.
It is forbidden!
Defragment flash media (flash drives), memory cards and SSD drives. This procedure is disastrous for them.
Video on the topic What is hard drive defragmentation.
Hello! Disk Defragmenter- many have heard about it, many know what it is, but almost no one performs this necessary operation.
This situation reminds me of smokers - they know that it is harmful and kills, but they do not quit smoking. Same with disk defragmentation. They forget to do it, they don’t attach any importance... Now we will look at why it is needed, how, with what and when to defragment the disk. As always - in detail, step by step and in pictures. As they say - “on the fingers”. I'll use a ruler...
Let's imagine that our hard drive (computer memory) is a ruler. A simple wooden ruler from my school childhood.
Let's “download” a couple of programs and a game onto this “line”...
We use them for a while, but then we realize that we don’t need program “B” and delete it from using CCleaner or Unlocker. We end up with this picture...
Without suspecting anything, we install another program, smaller in size. And this is where the fun begins. A computer is a smart device. He is trying his best to help the system, speed it up, optimize it. And prescribes new program“C” is as close to the beginning of the “line” as possible. Soon, free place.
As a result, we get a hole. It won't fit into anything. This is fragmented data. Why and why does he do this? I'm telling...
The fact is that information is read from our “ruler” using a special reading device located on the carriage. So this carriage is carried around with the reading device like a fool with a mortar over a “ruler”. And by the way, at “cosmic” speed.
Imagine a mother with ten children who crap themselves. Or a wolf with a basket from very popular game 80-90s(at the last level)…
Introduced? This is roughly how it happens in the iron insides of our computers. And this device (let’s call it a wolf) needs to monitor and view all programs and files on the “line”, and then there are these useless holes. He also reads them all the time.
And the more we use the computer, install and delete files, the faster the number of these holes grows. As a result, the system slows down, the “wolf” wears out, the mother of many children is in shock, the children are in the city... Oh, I can’t take it anymore! Wait a second!
That's it, he calmed down and crawled out from under the table. So what am I talking about here? Oh yes! About what disk defragmentation is.
And in order to reduce the number of movements of the “wolf” and speed up the search for files, the system places everything as close as possible to the beginning of the disk. Well, defragmenter programs are designed to bring order to all this mess.
Disk defragmentation allows you to organize the location of files on your disk. Remove the holes to the very end of the “ruler”. Thus, stop monitoring and taking them into account.
I hope you now understand the importance and necessity of periodically defragmenting the disk. "Wolf" is smoking, mom is sleeping, the children are bought.
Now let's install the defragmenter program. There are a lot of them on the Internet. Paid and free. I will use a proven, reliable manufacturer of free software. Such as CCleaner, Speccy, Recuva...
Defraggler —free program-disk defragmenter. Simple, reliable and in Russian.
Download Defraggler
Installer size 6.1 MB. There are no viruses. The program runs on all versions of the Windows operating system.
Installed a defragmenter. If you are asked to reboot, do it.
Optimizing a disk with Defraggler
After it, launch Defraggler and highlight required disk(it is advisable to select everything at once and click “defragment”, then in the settings set to turn off the computer after the operation and go to sleep), click “Analysis” to find out whether you need to defragment the disk today.
You can manage the process and put it in background mode and continue to do your business on the computer.
06.04.2015
Greetings friends! The topic of this article will be hard drive defragmentation. Mostly beginners do not know about this process, which is what causes the hard drive to fill with fragments.
On each hard drive of each computer user, thousands of files are saved and the same number are deleted. In their place, thousands of files are again installed, and then deleted with the same number.
Let me now try to explain this process in understandable human language.
Let's say you have bookshelves in your room. On each shelf all the books are sorted by name i.e. from A to Z.
The hard drive is in the same state without fragments. But one day, all the books were mixed up, the sorting order was disrupted and, ultimately, a complete house. The hard drive containing fragments is in approximately this state.
The newly purchased computer works with high speed and performance. Over time, the computer begins to slow down over time. In such situations, if you observe that the hard drive begins to crackle and operate noisily, this signals one thing, it is time to perform defragmentation (reverse fragmentation)
Defragmenting a hard drive on Windows 7 is done in two ways:
Let's look at the first way to use the built-in program. This method has significant disadvantages. The process does not defragment some system files and the process itself takes a very long time.
Let's go start open all programs, then move on standard choose official Select the one that opens from the list Disk Defragmenter
Basically, in all cases, this partition is the system partition (the partition where the operating system windows).
After making your selection, click Analyze disk. When the analysis is complete, click disk defragmentation.
Defragment your hard drive with Auslogics Disk Defrag Free
This is a convenient free program that will help defragment your hard drive, while at the same time increasing the performance of your computer, which improves your performance.
This program has a number of advantages over analogues:
- Optimizes system windows files located on the hard drive to increase system speed.
- The developers have provided one feature that allows defragmentation of one folder or one file
- The program has a very useful idle mode that works automatically
- This program optimizes free space on your computer
- Flexibility in setting parameters hard drive defragmentation Convenient and clear interface
This program is being improved every month. In this article we will look at the version of the program
Auslogics Disk Defrag Free 5.4.0.0. The counter for this program has reached 11,000,000 users.
While writing an article this version programs only for English language.
Auslogics Disk Defrag Free 5.4.0.0 can be downloaded from the official website.
When installing, no special knowledge or effort is required; we perform a normal installation. Launch the program
and preferably makes adjustments in the settings to improve the defragmentation result.
Let's go to settings(settings) open program settings(program settings) go algorithm ( algorithms ) . Next, insert a check mark in all items.
- Delete temporary files before defragmentation - this function allows you to clean your hard drive of debris stored on it,
- This frees up free disk space. These files (garbage) are a sufficient number,
- to slow down the hard drive defragmentation process.
- Skip fragments larger than 10MB - fragments with such memory increases the reading time.
- Defragmenting such fragments does not provide any benefit except that it will only waste time.
- Move system files to the beginning of the disk - this function allows you to move those files forward
- on which the speed of the process and time depend. The structure of the hard drive is such that it has the highest speed
- readout is located at the beginning of the hard drive.
- Defragment in VVS - compatible mode - this feature prevents the growth of the VVS saving area,
- which occurs when moving files and reduces the risk of copying previous VVS data.
When setting these settings, the speed of the defragmentation process improves.
Hard drive defragmentation process
Open the program, select the section, this is basically system partition(C), click right button mouse select Analyze(c).
After analysis, the program will reveal a map of results and tell you whether defragmentation is necessary.
The red cubes on the map are fragments. If the message Advice defragment disks appears at the bottom of the results, this means that the program recommends defragmentation. And if there is no message, we leave everything as is; there is no limit on the number of fragments on the disk.
Basically, if the result shows fragments less than 10%, then the condition of the hard drive is good.
The process takes from 5-15 minutes, it mainly depends on how many files are on your hard drive.
- If you defragment your hard drive frequently, you will increase the wear and tear on the drive.
- So I advise you to do defragmentation if necessary.
- During the defragmentation process, leave the computer alone. Due to this, defragmentation time is reduced.
- If for some reason you need a computer, you can use the program with the priority set to low.
- To do this, go to settings, hover your mouse over defragment priority and select Low priority.
- For the process to proceed normally, I advise that the disk has free space of 10% of the total memory.
Scheduler defragmentation function.
There are times when your computer is always on. In this case, it is better to use a scheduler.
To enable the scheduler, go to settings(settings) click scheduler(Cluster Map).
Mark the section defragment automatic(Defragment automatically) ticked. Next we configure this function according to your conditions.
Example settings:
- When selecting the When PC is idle mode, select the time.
- Every day mode (daily) - set the time for daily checking.
- Weekly mode - set the day for defragmentation.
- Monthly mode - select the day and time to start the process.
If you install the scheduler on a laptop it will not work when using battery.
Attention: for the scheduler to work, Auslogics program Disk Defrag Free must be in active mode, i.e. should be running.
In order for the program to start along with windows, go to settings(settings) select program settings(programm settings) and go to the tab are common(general) check the box as in the picture.
That's all the question is: how to do it hard drive defragmentation to uncover. If you have any questions, write comments. I hope the information was useful!