What happens if you defragment a disk? Disk Defragmenter. Is it necessary to defragment an SSD drive?

Surely, many users have heard such a concept or term as. However, in practice, for some reason, almost no one does this. 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 HDD, then the files are written in sequentially located 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, just their pieces (clusters) end up far from each other and scattered in different cells hard drive. Then, when re-accessing the recorded files, in the process of reading the file with 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 needed?

Disk Defragmenter necessary for acceleration work hard disk. 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's best to use third party programs to defragment the disk, because built in operating system Defragmenters 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 operating room Windows systems XP you need to do the following: Start – Programs – Accessories – System Tools – Disk Defragmentation. After this it will start special program, in which you can choose required 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 more efficiently and on high level, rather 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.

Hello, friends! In this article, we will talk about how to defragment hard drives in windows 7? Why is it needed? defragmenting disks in windows 7? Defragmentation of hard drives plays a significant role in optimizing the operating system; why defragment at all, you ask? We all use a computer, download movies, programs, games, create various documents, folders.

All this takes up a certain space on the hard drive in the form of clusters and follows each other sequentially, of course the hard drive is not rubber and over time we delete what we no longer need, then the process of storing and deleting files is repeated again and again.

Let me put it more simply in my own words, after all such manipulations with deleting files, storing and deleting again, the order of the cluster sequence is lost and the hard disk heads require more time to read and write information, which naturally leads to a decrease in the performance of the system and programs.

For this purpose, disks are defragmented in order to organize the continuous sequential arrangement of clusters. Defragmentation in Windows 7 can be done using the built-in utility or you can use free programs. Let's look at everything in order.

Defragmentation in Windows 7 using the built-in utility. Click on the "Start" menu button and type "Defragmentation" in the search bar. The "Disk Defragmentation" window will appear, click the "Analyze Disk" button and after the disk analysis has completed, click on the "Disk Defragmentation" button. Of course, few people use the built-in utility in Windows 7 when there are many programs available on the Internet. For example, I use the program Auslogics Disk Defrag.

There is a great one free program Auslogics Disk Defrag With the help of this program, the defragmentation process itself occurs faster and a graphic table is provided where we can see the progress of the analysis and defragmentation process. This is what the program window looks like. Click on the "Defragmentation" arrow and select the "Analysis" tab.

After analyzing the program, my graphical table looks like this. As you can see, the percentage of disk defragmentation will be: on drive “C” one percent, and on drive “D” six percent - this is because I recently defragmented disks, but for you this percentage may be much higher. At the bottom, click on the "Defragment disks" tab.

After defragmentation, as you can see, the table has changed, the program has defragmented, now the reading and writing speed of the hard drive will be faster, and naturally the performance of the system and programs has increased. Try to produce defragmentation in windows 7 at least once a month.

Have you noticed that your computer is running slower and slower and want to fix it?

There is a way to increase its performance by as much as 65%. Do you think this is science fiction? Not at all! It’s not difficult to turn on a defragmenter and restore order on your hard drive. After all, if data is scattered throughout it in an arbitrary manner, this slows down the operation of the entire system.

Why is defragmentation needed?

When copying to new hard disk files are written in the form of a chain of sequentially located clusters. And a few weeks later - after uninstallation unnecessary applications, deleting “used” folders, etc. – file fragments end up scattered throughout the hard drive. No, the files are not damaged - just their parts are written far from each other, in different clusters! In the process of reading a defragmented file, the disk head has to travel a long path from one fragment to another each time, and this path can be long. As a result, the computer slows down.

Why are files split into fragments?

When files are frequently saved and deleted, for example when processing video, free spaces appear on the hard drive, which are filled with new files over time. If the entire file being recorded does not fit into this space, it is divided into parts.

What happens during defragmentation?

During the defragmentation process, fragments of files scattered across the hard drive are organized: clusters are organized in such a way that individual pieces files were located sequentially, one after another, if possible. In addition, all data is moved to the beginning of the hard drive, and free space is located at the end.

What benefits does regular hard drive defragmentation give?

With a high level of data fragmentation, organizing information on your hard drive using a special utility will allow you to load programs and files faster. Sometimes defragmentation helps improve performance in resource-intensive 3D games - this is due to faster loading of graphic data. The speed of writing to disk also increases, for example, when installing new programs or after removing previously installed ones.

How often should you defragment?

It depends on how much time you spend on the computer every day and what operations you perform.

If your area of ​​activity is limited to office programs and by email, then the fragmentation of data on the hard drive will increase quite slowly. Therefore, defragmentation should not be done very often - about once a month.

If you use resource-intensive applications that require a lot of disk space to operate - these include, for example, video editing programs and 3D games with complex graphics - then it is recommended to defragment it more often. It is better to do this weekly, and also every time before installing new software. The Background Optimizer program monitors the health of the hard drive and, if necessary, defragments it automatically when the computer is not in use.

The defragmentation process in certain cases helps speed up the computer, since during it, files are merged and grouped, which increases the speed of their reading. However, defragmentation does not always help improve PC performance.

How fragmentation works

When a file is written to a hard drive, it is divided into several segments to make it easier and faster to write. But such a breakdown has a negative impact on the speed of reading information from the disk, since there may be empty space between the fragments, which is also read. If there is too much fragmentation on the disk, that is, there are many “broken” files, there is a risk of unstable operation of the operating system and/or the drive itself.

Why doesn't Windows write the entire file right away, rather than in parts? This is all explained by the fact that the hard drive is also divided into sectors that have a limited capacity, and we should not exclude the fact that the recording speed is also limited. As a result, the easiest way is to write a file into several sectors and combine them into a cluster. However, at this stage there is a difficulty, since neighboring sectors may contain data about files that are not in use (for example, they were deleted).

Defragmentation collects all files into one array or cluster, which speeds up reading speed and increases system stability. Also, during this procedure, data on unused files is deleted to free up neighboring sectors for subsequent merging into an array with the main sector.

The need for defragmentation and tools to perform it

If you have an HDD installed, then defragmentation is mandatory at least once every few months. Otherwise, you may observe deterioration in computer performance, various errors, and long periods of writing/reading information on a particular hard drive. However, frequent defragmentation also does not bring anything good for the disk.

Users who have an SSD drive installed should know that there is no need to defragment it, since this will not increase performance, but will speed up the process of wear and tear on the drive. This feature SSD drives are due to the fact that data is written to and read from it differently than from an HDD.

To carry out the defragmentation procedure, the built-in functionality of Windows is quite sufficient, although there are programs from third-party developers that offer wider functionality. Third-party software can be paid or free (shareware). But don’t forget that third-party programs that claim to “optimize PC performance” can harm your computer or turn out to be just unnecessary junk.

Carrying out defragmentation

Defragmentation should only be done if the disk really needs it. Fortunately, modern HDD drives (especially those with a capacity of 1 TB) and versions of the operating system try to record as efficiently as possible large files, thereby reducing the need for this procedure to 2-3 times a year.

But if you begin to notice that the computer has begun to work slower, especially if the time for opening programs, transferring files from one folder to another, etc. has increased, then it is worth carrying out a special analysis and optimizing the hard drive (the latter only if it will be needed). Step-by-step instruction to perform this procedure by staff using Windows as follows:

Although defragmentation can be done in background, it is best to do it manually and not use the computer until it is finished, or do some simple work on it (work in text files, listening to music, etc.).

Instructions for SSD drives

If you have an SSD installed, then defragmenting it is strictly not recommended. Firstly, it is not needed, since the process of writing, reading and storing information is different from the HDD. Secondly, SSDs wear out faster if they are regularly defragmented than HDDs.

Based on this, it is better to completely disable automatic defragmentation for this type of media so that Windows does not run this process in the background. The instructions in this case look like this:

To summarize the article

• Solid drives (SSDs) do not need to be defragmented;
• It is advisable to disable scheduled defragmentation or set the frequency of defragmentation to no more than once a month;
• Always analyze the disks, and then, based on its data, carry out optimization;
• If the percentage of disk fragmentation is below 5%, then it is better not to perform optimization.

Defragmentation is a necessary process to speed up your computer, but it will only be effective if you use it based on all the data received.

Disk defragmentation is a procedure for merging fragmented files, which is mainly used to Windows optimization. In almost any article on speeding up your computer you can find advice about defragmentation.

But not all users understand what defragmentation is, and do not know in which cases it is necessary to do it and in which it is not; what software should you use for this - is the built-in utility sufficient, or is it better to install a third-party program?

When doing disk defragmentation, many users don’t even think about or try to find out what it is all about. The answer can be found in the name itself: “defragmentation” is a process that combines files that were broken into fragments when written to the hard drive. The image below clearly shows that on the left, fragments of one file are recorded in a continuous stream, without empty spaces or divisions, and on the right, the same file is scattered across the hard drive in the form of pieces.

Naturally, it is much more convenient and faster for the disk to read a continuous file than one separated by empty space and other files.

Why does HDD fragmentation occur?

Hard drives are made up of sectors, each of which can store a certain amount of information. If a large file is saved to the hard drive, which cannot fit into one sector, then it is split and saved into several sectors.

By default, the system always tries to write file fragments as close to each other as possible - in adjacent sectors. However, due to the deletion/saving of other files, resizing of already saved files and other processes, there are not always enough free sectors located next to each other. Therefore, Windows transfers the file recording to other parts of the HDD.

How fragmentation affects drive speed

When you need to open a recorded fragmented file, the hard drive head will sequentially move to the sectors where it was saved. Thus, the more times he has to move around the hard drive in an attempt to find all the pieces of the file, the slower the reading will be.

The image on the left shows how many movements the hard drive head needs to make to read files that have been split into parts. On the right, both files, indicated in blue and yellow, are written continuously, which significantly reduces the number of movements across the disk surface.

Defragmentation is the process of rearranging pieces of one file so that the overall percentage of fragmentation decreases, and all files (if possible) are located on adjacent sectors. Thanks to this, reading will occur continuously, which will have a positive effect on the speed of the HDD. This is especially noticeable when reading large files.

Does it make sense to use third-party defragmentation programs?

Developers have created a large number of programs that deal with defragmentation. You can find both small defragmenter programs and find them as part of complex system optimizers. There are free and paid options. But are they necessary?

There is certainly a certain effectiveness of third-party utilities. Programs from different developers may offer:

• Custom auto-defragmentation settings. The user can more flexibly manage the procedure schedule;
• Other algorithms for carrying out the process. Third-party software has its own features that are more beneficial in the long run. For example, they require less percentage of free space on the HDD to run the defragmenter. At the same time, files are optimized, increasing their download speed. The volume's free space is also consolidated so that the level of fragmentation increases more slowly in the future;
• Additional features, for example, registry defragmentation.

Of course, program functions vary depending on the developer, so the user needs to select a utility based on his needs and PC capabilities.

Is it necessary to constantly defragment the disk?

All modern Windows versions offer to automatically carry out this process on a schedule once a week. Overall, it's more useless than necessary. The fact is that fragmentation itself is an old procedure, and in the past it was really constantly needed. In the past, even mild fragmentation has had a negative impact on system performance.

Modern HDDs have more high speed work, and new versions of operating systems have become much “smarter”, so even with a certain fragmentation process, the user may not notice a decrease in operating speed. And if you use a hard drive with a large capacity (1 TB or higher), then the system can distribute heavy files in an optimal way for it so that this does not affect performance.

In addition, constantly running the defragmenter shortens the life of the disk - this is an important disadvantage that should be taken into account.

Since defragmentation is enabled by default in Windows, you must disable it manually:

Is it necessary to defragment an SSD drive?

A very common mistake made by users using solid state drives is using any defragmenter.

Remember, if you have an SSD drive installed on your computer or laptop, do not defragment it under any circumstances - this greatly accelerates the wear of the drive. In addition, this procedure will not increase the speed of the SSD.

If you have not disabled defragmentation in Windows before, be sure to do so either for all drives or just for the SSD.

Third-party utilities also have a similar feature, but the configuration method will be different.

Features of defragmentation

There are several nuances for the quality of this procedure:

• Despite the fact that defragmenters can work in the background, to achieve the best results, it is best to run them when there is no or minimal user activity (for example, during a break or while listening to music);
• When carrying out periodic defragmentation, it is more correct to use quick methods that speed up access to the main files and documents, but a certain part of the files will not be processed. In this case, the full procedure can be done less frequently;
• Before complete defragmentation, it is recommended to remove junk files and, if possible, exclude files from processing pagefile.sys And hiberfil.sys. These two files are used as temporary files and are recreated with each system startup;
• If the program has the ability to defragment the file table (MFT) and system files, then you shouldn’t neglect it. As a rule, this function is not available when the operating system is running, and can be performed after a reboot before starting Windows.

How to defragment

There are two main ways to carry out defragmentation: installing a utility from another developer or using a program built into the operating system. In this case, you can optimize not only built-in disks, but also external drives connected via USB.

Our website already has instructions for defragmenting on Windows example 7. In it you will find a guide to working with popular programs and a standard Windows utility.

1. Don't defragment solid state drive(SSD).
2. Disable scheduled defragmentation in Windows.
3. Do not abuse this process.
4. First, do an analysis and find out whether there is a need to perform defragmentation.
5. If possible, use quality programs, whose efficiency is higher than the built-in Windows utility.