by 
The Curious Bag
-
Defragmentation, commonly called defragging, can best be thought of as a way to reorganize the files on your computer. Once a computer's drives have been defragmented, the system often runs faster and smoother than it did before.
File Cabinet
To understand defragmenting, think of your computer as a file cabinet. When you first get it, all of the files are in their proper drawers and in their proper order.
Change
As a person uses her computer, she installs new software, writes new documents and deletes old files she don't use. This changes the original order of the imaginary file cabinet.
Deleting
When a person deletes files, those files aren't instantly erased. Instead, the computer marks them as files that aren't needed and that can be recorded over with new data.
Disarray
When files are deleted, they're almost never right next to each other. So new data has to be written in piecemeal, often spread out over many gaps. This can make it hard to access these files quickly, since the data is so spread out.
Defragmentation
When a computer's drive (the place where it stores files) is defragmented, the computer goes through all the data and puts it together again in a neater order. It closes the gaps, makes sure that files are all in one piece and generally makes the computer more efficient once the "file cabinet" is put back in order.
Source:
RELATED QUESTIONS
Copyright 2023, Wired Ivy, LLC