What is Defragmentation? Why Should you do it?

The Meaning of Defragmentation:
“Defragmentation” is a term used for the process of scanning the file system and reducing the amount of fragmentation in file systems.

So, what does fragmentation mean?
Fragmentation simply means that the files are stored in multiple locations instead of single location in your hard disk when you install a program or write a data file.

Why is that happen?

During your first installation of operating system, the files and programs are written to the hard disk in one contiguous block without any space. The exceptions are certain system files that must be stored in specific locations. As you delete or uninstall programs over the time, many filled locations are left empty and you are probably making many holes in your hard disk.

When you install programs or write data files to the disk, they will not be stored in single location but multiple locations all over the disk because their size is not fit to the empty spaces you have made.

For instance, when you copy a 5mb audio file to the disk, but the biggest slice of empty space is only 3mb, then the windows will writes 3mb of the audio file to the empty space and search for other places to store the rest of the audio file. This means that a single file may be scattered across the hard disk in noncontiguous pieces.

Why should we reduce the amount of fragmentation in file systems?
The more fragmented files there are on a drive, the more performance and reliability suffer as the drive have to scout for all the pieces of the files in different locations. If your files are stored neatly without fragmentation, reading and writing to the disk is faster and smoother.

How to keep your hard disk neat and tidy?
There is a simple solution to keep your hard disk neat and reduce fragmentations:
Use Windows Disk Defragmenter!

There are many different ways to open Disk Defragmenter. The two most common methods are listed below.

• (Start –> Programs –> Accessories –> System Tools –> Disk Defragmenter)
• (My Computer –> Right click your drive –> Select “Tools” on the Tabs –> Click Disk Defragmenter)

For Windows XP:

When you open Disk Defragmenter, you will see a list of the hard drives displayed at the top of the screen. The Estimated Disk Usage Before Defragmentation and Estimated Disk Usage After Defragmentation will be blank until a drive is selected and the Analyze button is clicked. In the image above, I’ve yet to analyze my drive.


After the Analyze button has been clicked and the process has been completed, the Session Status will show “Analyzed” and the Estimated Disk Usage Before Defragmentation will show a graphical represent the drive fragmentation.
Besides, a recommendation of what action Disk Defragmenter thinks should be taken regarding the drive will be shown as above. However, it’s just a recommendation based on the percentage of fragmented files to total files, it doesn’t prevent the drive from being defragmented. You can defragment your drive if you feel it needs to be done to improve system performance.

If you wish to start the defragmentation of your drive, click the “Defragment” button. If you agree with their recommendation and don’t want your drive to be defragmented, click the “Close” button. If you wish to view more informations about the drive analysis, click the “View Report” button.

Remember, defragmentation may take from a few minutes to a few hours. You are advice not to stop the process once it has been started. You should wait for the process to complete.


If you receive a warning message as in the screen shot above, you should delete unneeded files to free up 15% of disk space before defragment your disk.

For Windows Vista:



To start defragmentation of your disk, you only have to click the “Defragment Now” button and the process will be started.
Mark a tick beside “Run on a schedule” if you wish to run defragmentation on a schedule and click the “Modify Schedule” button to edit the schedule.

Good Luck!