What does defrag do exactly?

[Sniper82]

I've never really used defrag with any windows from 95 up till XP(now). I might have run it 3 times the 8 years or so I been into PC's. Whats it do exactly? I think it moves files around but what for? Also how often should it be ran and is XP the best way to do it?

One last thing is there a way to defag all my partions one after another while I am gone or something?

 

[n7]

What does it do?

It organizes files in a more orderly fashion, since Windows tends to throw them around randomly.

I can't believe you've never defragged...it makes a huge difference in accessing files, etc.


I use O&O Pro, which allows for defragging one after another, etc.

I believe there are some good freeware programs too, just do a search here.

 

[AyashiKaibutsu]

What it does is reallocate your files on the harddrive. Basicly, as your computer is putting stuff on the harddrive it finds it has to split it up to make it fit where it can find places. That means when the harddrive goes to access the file it has to jump to a bunch of different places to read one file. Defrag takes all the pieces and rearranges them so the harddrive doesn't have to spend extra time tracking down multiple pieces of one file.

 

[spherrod]

mandatory Wiki article

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defragmentation