This subdivision of a file within a hard drive is what is referred to as file fragmentation. Then whatever remains will be pushed to the back pages where there’s unwritten space. What will happen is that the computer will first place part of the huge file in the free available gaps until they are all filled up. Now let’s assume at this point you bring in a relatively huge file to this hard drive. You end up with gaps of unwritten spaces scattered all over the drive.

Now imagine repeating those delete operations over and over. Now, if you delete a file that was stored close to page 1 you will have some free empty space in the middle of other existing data. However, as time moves, you may need to delete a file or move it from one folder to another. When you first copy files to it, they are all arranged to start from the first page towards the last. Consider an empty hard disk to be a new blank exercise book. Read More: 10 quick ways to make your Windows PC run fasterĭisk fragmentation is a consequence of how a mechanical hard disk writes and arranges data.

Defragmenting hard drive windows 10