What do fragmented files do

If you'd like to learn how to defragment manually, click here. Skip to main content. You are here Documentation » How Defragmenting Works. How Defragmenting Works When a program saves a file on a disk, it puts the file into an empty space on the disk. When it saves changes to the file, it saves the changes to another empty space on the disk.

The image below shows an example of file fragmentation. As you can see, the lower half has other files and gaps in-between what should be a continuous blue section. Disk utilities, such as Microsoft Defrag , is used to help clean or organize file fragmentation and help keep file access faster. The more you tell us the more we can help. Can you help us improve? Resolved my issue. Clear instructions. Easy to follow. No jargon. Pictures helped.

Didn't match my screen. Incorrect instructions. When the drive is being defragged the computer is moving the different parts and regrouping them in one location.

The longer it has been since you last defragged the computer, the longer it will take to move the jumbled parts. The second thing the defrag processes worries about is where on the disk the files are being moved to.

A quick lesson in physics will show you that if you want on the outer edge of the disk you will be moving faster than if you stand on the inner edge, this is because the outer edge is longer and has to travel farther to make a full rotation. This means that data that is near the outer rim can be accessed faster and thus the more often the file is accessed the higher priority it would have to be located on the outer edge.

If you have a flash drive or a SSD Solid State Drive then you might be wondering if you should defrag them along with your hard drive.