Defragmenting your hard drive can be good or bad for the device depending on what kind of hard drive you're using. Generally, you want to regularly defragment a mechanical Hard Disk Drive and avoid defragmenting a Solid State Disk Drive. Defragmentation can improve data access performance for HDDs that store information on disk platters, whereas it can cause SSDs that use flash memory to wear out faster.
Defragmentation Organizes Files
The term defragment refers to rearranging file segments on a storage device in contiguous order so the file is no longer fragmented. Fragmentation makes your computer work harder and perform slower. When a computer saves a file to a hard drive, it uses whatever space is available -- if there is not enough consecutive free space to hold the file as a whole, the hard drive splits the file into multiple parts and store those parts in available open spaces. A non-contiguous file is called a fragmented file.
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Benefits for Hard Disk Drives
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If your computer's running slower than normal, you might be able to speed things back up by defragmenting that hard drive. Defragmenting is beneficial for HDDs because it brings files together instead of scattering them so that the device's read-write head doesn't have to move around as much when accessing files. Two things affect how quickly a hard drive recalls data: seek time and read speed which relate to the time it takes to move the controller arm to the data location and how long it takes to read the data. Defragmenting improves load times by reducing how frequently the hard drive has to seek data.
Drawbacks for Solid State Disk Drives
Defragmenting a SSD will likely not improve performance and cause the drive to wear out faster. SSDs, or flash hard drives, do not physically move a controller arm to read data stored on a physical disk and instead recall information stored on flash memory. Because of the way SSDs operate, the seek time becomes negligible, so a fragmented file won't make a difference. Additionally, many SSDs use algorithms that deliberately spread data over flash memory chips that only make sense to the SSD's controller. Since the computer doesn't process the SSD data arrangement algorithms, the data is shuffled around and not actually defragmented.
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Configure Defragmentation Intervals
Windows can run hard drive defragmentation in the background so that it's unnoticeable. You can run on-demand defragmentation or adjust background defragmentation frequency with the "Optimize Drives" program. Access "Optimize Drives" by searching for "Defrag" on the Charms menu search bar and selecting the "Defragment and optimize your drives" result . Select the hard drive you want to defrag and click the "Change Settings" option. Check the box next to "run on a schedule" and select the "Weekly" or "Monthly" option. Defragmenting usually goes off without a hitch, but you might lose data if the computer loses power mid-process.
References
- PCWorld: Fragging Wonderful: The Truth About Defragging your SSD
- PCWorld: Three Surprising Things About Hard Drive Defragging
- PC Magazine Encyclopedia: Definition of: Defragment
- Computer Hope Jargon: Defrag
- Auslogics: Why Should I Defragment My Hard Drive
- Microsoft Windows: Ways to Improve Your Computer's Performance
