Everything you need to know about defragmenting your hard drive. What is hard drive defragmentation and is it necessary?

1. What is defragmentation?

Defragmentation is the movement and arrangement of fragments (parts) of files so that they are placed compactly. After all, when writing to a hard drive, fragments of the same file can be scattered in different places, which slows down the speed of data reading and the operation of programs. And defragmentation organizes all data, which increases the speed of the computer. You can read the publication.

2. How often should you defragment?

It depends on how you use the computer. If you only work in office programs and sometimes play kerchief, then defragmentation can be carried out once every few months. Because the files hardly change when the computer operates this way.

But if programs, games are removed and installed, or some files are simply added (movies, music, photos, etc.), then defragmentation needs to be done more often. And the more intense the data changes (writing and/or deletion), the more often you need to defragment it in order to keep your computer running at maximum speed. For the system disk (where Windows is), you can enable background or offline defragmentation, which will be carried out as needed. In general, it is best to analyze the disk with the defragmenter itself, and you will see what the percentage of fragmentation is. If it is above 10 percent, you can defragment it. If it is more than 30%, then this state of affairs really slows down the computer and defragmentation is simply necessary.

3. What does disk defragmentation do?

Let's give a simple example. You bought a lot of things, your wife is waiting for you on the street, you are late for a movie. You enter the apartment and you need to put these things in the closet as quickly as possible. You don’t have time to put everything in its place, you need to do everything quickly.

This is how it is when writing to disk. Write speed is the main indicator, so the data is scattered in different places to make it faster. And defragmentation is the same as tidying up the same closet. And as soon as you point it out, all things can be found faster, because they are not scattered throughout the closet.

If there is little data on the computer and it rarely changes, then you will not see much effect from disk defragmentation. But if Windows was installed a long time ago, during which time a bunch of programs and other information were installed, then you will really feel the effect. All programs, and even Windows itself, will work faster. Speaking in the language of numbers, it is possible to increase the speed of a computer from 1-2 to 40 percent. It all depends on how fragmented the disk is. So, analyze the disk with a defragmenter and see for yourself the percentage of fragmentation.

4. Will defragmentation harm your computer?

Defragmentation can only be harmful if you use some unknown, dubious defragmenter. Also, if during the process of defragmenting a disk, the electricity suddenly goes out and the computer is without an uninterruptible power supply, then data loss is possible. Not all of them, of course, but only those who are moving at that moment. The defragmenter cannot cause any other harm to the computer.

5. How to choose a defragmenter?

First of all, decide for yourself which one you need - paid or free. Moreover, you don’t have to pay for a paid defragmenter. The point is this. An average commercial defragmenter will be equal in quality to the best free one. This level is quite enough for a good increase in computer speed, so read the article. And if you want the best, choose a paid one.

Next point. There is a list of defragmenters that are best suited for your operating system. What is good for Windows XP may not work in Windows 7. Read the review. There will be links to more detailed articles for each operating system.

6. I have a laptop. Does it require some special defragmenter?

No, not needed. Defragmenters work the same for computers, laptops or netbooks. There is no difference. Defragmentation is simply the reorganization and organization of information.

7. Will defragmentation interfere with the operation of the computer?

Yes. When you run defragmentation, files will be actively moved. This will interfere with your computer work. Everything will slow down, so to speak. So it is best to set defragmentation at night. And if you mean background defragmentation, then it will be carried out only when the computer is idle, when you do nothing. In this case, defragmentation will not interfere with work on the computer.

8. Can I install 2-3 defragmenters for greater effect?

It’s possible, but it won’t do any good. After all, each defragmenter will organize the data according to its own discretion, so this will only take more time. But the effect will be almost the same (depending on which defragmenters). So it's better to choose one good one than 2 mediocre ones.

9. Are there any differences in the work of different defragmenters?

Yes, I have. The differences may vary. This is the speed of operation, the presence of background defragmentation (when you are not working on the computer), the ability to defragment system files and the swap file. The more functionality a defragmenter has, the more it can defragment, and the greater the effect of defragmentation will be. So choose the best defragmenter, they have great functionality and good speed.

There are also differences in operating modes. For example, the best defragmenters provide a choice of how to defragment. This can be organized by file name (speeds up the startup and operation of the operating system), by free space (combines free space into one space on the disk), and several other modes. Simpler defragmenters often have one mode; find out which mode it is from the reviews.

10. Is it better to choose a paid or free defragmenter?

It depends what you want. If the effect is maximum, then there is no better option than paid ones. Moreover, in our country you don’t have to pay money for them. And if super-tasks are not required from a defragmenter, then a free one will be enough. If you take the best free defragmenter and a paid mid-level one, the quality will be the same.

11. Should defragmentation be done more often on a disk with an operating system than on others?

Yes, more often. After all, files there are constantly changing. Temporary files are constantly being written and deleted, and even more so if you install something yourself, then file fragmentation occurs constantly. So analyze the system disk and see the percentage of fragmentation. It will also be possible to enable offline defragmentation for the disk on which the operating system is installed, which will be carried out when the computer is inactive, so it will not interfere with your work on the computer.

12. Is it possible to lose data when defragmenting a disk?

Yes, but only if you turn off the computer during disk defragmentation or press Reset (power reboot). Then there is a possibility of losing the data that is being moved at that moment. You don’t have to worry about the safety of all other data.

13. I don’t see that the computer has become faster. Defragmentation failed?

The effect of defragmentation is noticeable to the eye only when the degree of fragmentation is quite large. Did you analyze the disk before doing it? What was the percentage of fragmentation? If the degree of disk fragmentation was up to 10%, then it is clear that you will not be able to see the difference by eye. And if it is more than 30%, then you will feel the effect immediately after restarting the computer.

14. How to check the speed of your computer before and after defragmentation?

Well, this is difficult to determine by eye. To do this, we need a computer testing program. These can be programs such as SiSoftware Sandra, 3DMark and others. But these are the most advanced and accurate. They have a bunch of tests, so choose the speed of what exactly you want to check.

15. Why is there a bad defragmenter that is already in Windows, why look for another one?

Who said he's bad? No, he's not bad. It’s just that, compared to good defragmenters, its operating speed is lower, the quality of defragmentation is worse, and its functionality is much poorer. However, a defragmenter built into Windows is better than none at all.

Surely, many users have heard such a concept or term as. However, in practice, for some reason, almost no one does it. And the reason here is very simple. The thing is that most users do not know or do not understand why this long and rather tedious process called disk defragmentation is necessary.

And let's try to understand this issue.

Text version.

What is disk defragmentation?

The fact is that when writing files to a new hard drive, the files are written in sequential pieces, they are also called clusters. However, after some time - after copying, transferring, deleting folders, files, etc. – these pieces of files (clusters) end up scattered throughout the hard drive, forming voids. The so-called file fragmentation occurs.

The files themselves are NOT damaged, it’s just that their pieces (clusters) end up far from each other and scattered in different cells of the hard drive. Then, when re-accessing the recorded files, while the file is being read by the hard disk head, it has to search for all fragments of the file across the entire surface of the disk, which noticeably slows down the work.

Disk Defragmenter is the process of collecting and transferring all pieces of files (clusters) scattered throughout the hard drive to a close distance from each other. Disk defragmentation is the reverse process of fragmentation.

Why is disk defragmentation necessary?

Disk Defragmenter necessary to speed up the hard drive. In addition, after defragmentation, all data is moved to the beginning of the hard drive, and free space is located at the end, which also speeds up data access.

Disk Defragmenter allows you to load programs and files faster. The speed of writing data to disk also increases, for example, when installing new programs or after uninstalling previously installed ones.

To keep your computer running at optimal performance, defragment your disk at least once a month, or at least once a month.

Programs for disk defragmentation.

You can defragment a disk using the system’s own tools (the operating system has a built-in defragmenter), or using third-party programs, for example, Defraggler, O&O Defrag Free etc. There are quite a lot of such programs.

By the way, it is best to use third-party programs to defragment the disk, because... Defragmenters built into the operating system cope very poorly with defragmentation, which affects the final performance of the system.

To use the built-in defragmenter in the Windows 7 operating system, you must follow these steps: Start – All Programs – Accessories – System Tools – Disk Defragmenter. For the Windows XP operating system, you must perform the following steps: Start – Programs – Accessories – System Tools – Disk Defragmenter. After this, a special program will launch in which you can select the desired disk, analyze it and defragment it, and, if necessary, set up subsequent defragmentation processes on a schedule.

As for third-party defragmenters, I repeat, you can use the program, etc. For example, I use the program. This complex has in its arsenal not only tools for cleaning the system of debris, but also for defragmenting the disk.

Although I recommend using a separate third-party disk defragmenter program. Such programs defragment disks with better quality and at a higher level than built-in defragmenters of operating systems and other complexes.

Well, in principle, I’m not complaining about the work of the program yet Auslogics BoostSpeed. You can see how this program works in the video tutorial in this post.

That's basically it. I hope that I was able to explain to you in detail what it is and why it is needed. If you have any thoughts or thoughts on this matter, please share them in your comments.

Why is defragmentation needed? First, let's give a definition: - this is a process designed to speed up the operation of a computer. What does defragmentation do? With its help, the structure of the logical division of the contents of disk space, designed for storing files in a continuous sequence, is optimized. Once the process is complete, reading files hosted on clusters will be faster. Disk defragmentation is also necessary because it will make all programs recorded on the affected disk work much faster. Most often you have to carry out a similar operation on the d drive, since it contains all the necessary file accounts.

What is the purpose of this operation?

Why is defragmentation needed? The fact is that writing files to disk requires a certain amount of space. This place is divided into clusters, computer memory cells. If something has already been recorded on the computer, and now you need to add some voluminous information to these recordings, then there will not be a single space on the disk that can fit all the components of these files in a row. The computer will scatter them into separate cells that are not adjacent to each other.

To better understand why and why these operations are performed, let’s take a saucepan as an example. Place an object in it whose volume occupies about half the container, but does not touch its edges. The item itself will fit well, and there will be quite a lot of space left to fill the pan with other small things, their total volume being equal to the item already in the pan. But if we want to put something in it that is as big as what we have already put there, then we will not have enough space.

We will be able to do this only if we divide a solid object into several small ones. In computer parlance this would be called fragmentation.

For the most part, programs that require such an operation are systems such as Windows and. The reason for this is that they do not have programs that prevent files from being scattered across separate clusters. You can stop the fragmentation process by recording special programs on your computer, but this is a separate topic. Now we need to help speed up the computer by correctly merging all the files scattered by the system.

In addition, it also happens that programs do not want to run on the computer at all, unless you defragment them. And here's the reason: some software forces the computer to ensure that some of the files are on the disk in exactly the order in which they were when recorded. If after this the sequence of finding information differs from the source code, then the program will hardly start. Thus, we may lose the opportunity to play some games, run a working program, or we may even ruin the operation of the computer if we install systems that change its structure.

For an example of a program that does not work without eliminating the scattering of information throughout the hard drive, we can cite the emulator built into the CD-ROM. It runs on a Zalman ve-200 drive and requires files to be found in the order in which they were written from the source. Even installing a solid-state drive, which is not capable of combining files into a single structure, does not help get rid of the problem. Here you should understand what it means that the emulator refuses to start. To solve the problem, you need to defragment the hard drive.

Another process of merging files is required for systems such as file allocation table, MS-DOS and . None of them have protection to help prevent file splitting. Moreover, it is quite possible for fragmented disks to appear even on an empty hard drive, including if you write small . The problem is the absence of the above programs that ensure the installation of files in a row.

The impact of fragmentation on computer performance and how to combat it

In addition to the fact that the computer will become much slower in file processes, fragmentation will have a very serious impact on the condition of the hard drive itself. It is quite possible that it will be damaged. This will happen due to its overload. The fact is that there are so-called positioning disk heads, which are responsible for reading and writing information installed on the computer. To cure this disease, you must either install a special defragmenter program, the main task of which will be to combine all the information scattered throughout the drive into a single segment. However, the problem will be that the system to eliminate fragmentation will be slow. It will take a lot of hours. It is possible that if there is a lot of information on the disk, then all day long.

Of course, no one wants to deal with long-term operation of programs designed to defragment a disk. You can carry out the entire operation manually, especially since this way you can speed up the process several times. Of course, you can find systems that work 2 times faster than others. But still, familiarize yourself with the order in which you should manually merge clusters:

1. Go to drive d and create a new file system partition on it.
2. Copy all the information you need and paste it into this section.
3. Since the disk is empty, fragmentation should not occur when writing to it (although there are exceptions).

That's all there is to it. Such operations will take you much less time than using a program that eliminates fragmentation.

How to merge files when using special programs?

Let's analyze the process of working of a defragmenter program using Windows XP as an example. To successfully complete the transaction you need to make sure there is enough free space on the disk. The fact is that after installing the program, at least 15% of the total memory available on the computer must remain free clusters.

After completing the installation of the program, you can begin the cleaning process. Right-click on the icon of the disk that you want to process. In our case, this is drive d. After this, a window will appear in which you will find the “properties” item. Select it. Now you will see the following window, which has a small tab called “service”. Go to it. In the “service” tab there is a button called “perform defragmentation”. If you don’t find it right away, it means that the program has a “disk defragmentation” sub-item. Click on it and you will see the button you are interested in. Now all that remains is to set the target hard drive to drive d. By right-clicking on it, you will see a window with an “analysis” button in it. It is necessary to carry out diagnostics of data located on the drive. After diagnostics, a new window pops up, which will contain a “defragmentation” button. Click on it and the rest of the process will happen automatically. When it ends, you will see a message pop up on the monitor indicating the completion of the operation.

That's all a person who decides to defragment a hard drive using an electronic program needs to know.

Now that you know what the process called “defragmentation” does, you can decide for yourself whether you need it. In any case, you should know that this is a very important step in speeding up your 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 Windows operating system is installed).

After selecting, 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 Windows system 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 intuitive 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.

At the time of writing this article, this version of the program is only in English.

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 partition, this is mainly the system partition (C), right-click and 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.

1. If you defragment your hard drive frequently, you will increase the wear and tear on the drive.
2. So I advise you to do defragmentation if necessary.
3. During the defragmentation process, leave the computer alone. Due to this, defragmentation time is reduced.
4. If for some reason you need a computer, you can use the program with the priority set to low.
5. To do this, go to settings, hover your mouse over defragment priority and select Low priority.
6. For the process to proceed normally, I recommend that the disk have 10% of the total memory free space

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 to suit 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, the Auslogics Disk Defrag Free program 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!

Defragmenting your hard drive is a great way to improve your computer's performance. Although the term "defragmentation" sounds very serious, it is actually a very simple and useful process in the event that your computer has started to behave suspiciously.

What is hard drive defragmentation

First, let's understand this term that is not clear to everyone " defragmentation».

If you believe the know-it-all, then the process in which the logical structure of a disk partition is optimized and updated in order to ensure the further storage of all files on your computer in a continuous sequence of clusters is defragmentation. Or another way - redistributing files on the disk for their further location in contiguous areas.

Imagine a huge library filled to the brim with different books in an absolutely chaotic order. And try to imagine that there is no librarian in this library at all! As visitors each day pick up books and do not put them back in their original place, they are placed further apart in a chaotic manner. Now imagine that you come to the library and want to take some “The Art of Programming” in 4 volumes, and all 4 books are located in different places in the library. And the search begins... You will spend a lot of time finding all the books. The same thing happens on your computer. We download some programs, and after a while we realize that we no longer need them and delete their. And in their place new information is recorded, which takes up less space on your hard drive. And then holes appear in which you can no longer write anything. This process is - fragmented data.

When running programs that contain hundreds of files, Fragmentation can slow down your computer's performance. Because the clusters(cells) of files on your hard drive are fragmented, they are located far from each other and the computer has to rush at cosmic speed through all the nooks and crannies of memory, like an idiot with a mortar, and collect them in parts. A game that immediately comes to mind was popular in the 80s and 90s, where a wolf runs around with a basket on the last level.

But for your computer this is a normal process, and the more you install programs, download files, the faster the number of these holes grows, and we get low performance and slow operating system.

What does hard drive defragmentation do and how does it happen?

To begin with, the operating system analyzes the disk for the presence of fragmented files and sends them to the buffer by sequentially rewriting them to a new location. Many people immediately have a question: “will data be lost after defragmentation”? The answer is no, don't confuse defragmentation with formatting. And there is also a very common misconception that using defragmentation you can check on the disk. This is not true, there are many programs for this.

With the help of disk defragmentation, we have the opportunity to combine all parts of one file into one chain, i.e. all empty cells will be collected in one pile at the end of the disk, and all parts of the data files will become sequential and end up at the beginning. After defragmentation, the speed of access to all files and their parts increases significantly. Of course, after a certain period of time, fragmented files will appear again, but there is only one way out - you need to defragment again after some time.

Overview of hard drive defragmentation programs

There are a huge number of programs on the Internet that can be used to defragment your hard drive. Windows also has a built-in defragmenter, but its performance leaves much to be desired. Now I will list the most famous programs:
is a very fast defragmentation program; the program uses a number of algorithms that make the defragmentation process faster than using conventional utilities.

- a relative of the recently very popular JkDefrag. It can be called stable, productive and easy to work with.

- a successful program from the well-known company Piriform. Combines stability, security and ease of use.

— it is possible to work quite productively in graphical mode, and even through the console.

— works in automatic mode, and decides when to start defragmentation. It also helps prevent some failures in the operating system.

Try not to forget do defragmentation at least occasionally it is will extend the life of your computer and speed up its performance. Remember to leave 10-15% of free disk space for defragmentation. I advise you to do this operation at night, because it takes a lot of time. Most programs have a function that will shut down the computer after the defragmentation process is completed.