13 3 @ 7 l 3 13 0 y

Some people have been asking: What is fragmentation, and why do i need to defragment?
In this FAQ I will explain to you: What fragmentation is, How it occurs, and Why you should defragment your hard drive.

Index:
1.What is fragmentation
2.How does this occur
3.Why should i defrag
4.good 3rd party defraggers


What is fragmentation?:
Fragmentation is the insertion of data, which is too large for one area, into two area on the hard drive separated by another program, causing it to become two separate peices. And seeing as that is a confusing definition, I will explain this further in the following paragraph.

How does this occur?:
(*sector amounts are examples)
Say I have 4 programs: Firefox, Photoshop, BF2, and CS:S. I plan to store them on a clean partition of the hard drive. The file system places all applications and programs in order, so it will place Firefox onto the first 4* sectors of the partition. Thats all good and well, but now I want to install Photoshop, and that takes up the next 5* sectors (now the first 9* sectors are full). I decide install BF2, and that takes up another 5* sectors (first 14* sectors are full).



Uh oh, I get tired of Photoshop, and decide to delete it. Now there is a 5* sector hole in between BF2, and Firefox (where Photoshop used to be). Time to install CS:S, but it will use 6* sectors, so my file system puts the first 5* of the 6 CS:S sectors into the gap, and the last sector, after BF2. CS:S has become fragmented, becuase the file is split by BF2 (5* CS:S sectors before BF2, and one* after).



With this knowledge, we move onto why we should defragment.

Why should i defragment?:

Now the hard drive must spend more time looking for all of the CS:S data. It may not seem like much with this example, but constant fragmentation can add literal seconds onto load times of map loads, and windows XP loading, etc. If you have a Raptor in RAID 0, the seconds that RAID took off, are added back on due to fragmentation.

What are good third party programs:
some people prefer other utilities than the windows defragger. some of the most popular include diskeeper and O&O.



Thats how fragmentation occurs. If you would like something changed or added, just say so.

Attached Images

frag.bmp (352.9 KB, 77 views)

13 3 @ 7 l 3 13 0 y

anything i missed? its my first real FAQ. ill try to add pics later

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11,009 in 3DMark06! on a single 8800GTS320 @ 660/2000
Can i search a specific site in google? Is there a title associated with my reps? What are fragmentations/how do they occur?

13 3 @ 7 l 3 13 0 y

therewe go, i added pics to help with understanding

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11,009 in 3DMark06! on a single 8800GTS320 @ 660/2000
Can i search a specific site in google? Is there a title associated with my reps? What are fragmentations/how do they occur?

noxious89123

Good FAQ, should help the noobs. Done well with the pics, and i didnt see any mistakes so rep+ for your effort :)

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13 3 @ 7 l 3 13 0 y

cleaned it up abit, and tryed to makew the definition alittle clearer. anything else?

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11,009 in 3DMark06! on a single 8800GTS320 @ 660/2000
Can i search a specific site in google? Is there a title associated with my reps? What are fragmentations/how do they occur?

BuCKetHeaD27

Great!

Fusion Racing

nice one, helped to understand it

should help some n00bies too

Nevaziah

great tips, I have never know why i needed to defrag. at least i know its very very usefull. I have so many programs installed and unistalled.

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13 3 @ 7 l 3 13 0 y

added software section

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11,009 in 3DMark06! on a single 8800GTS320 @ 660/2000
Can i search a specific site in google? Is there a title associated with my reps? What are fragmentations/how do they occur?

r3tard

Nice. I agree with O&O Defrag, great utility, and barely uses any system resources while it's defragging. I usually game while it's defragging and the performance hit is minimal to none :)