Scribd
Upload
36 views

Defragmentation: File Systems Fragmentation Mass Storage Files Contiguous

Defragmentation is a process that physically organizes files on a storage device into contiguous regions to improve access speed by reducing disk head movement. It also compacts free space to prevent future fragmentation. Some utilities group related smaller files together. Defragmentation benefits systems with electromechanical drives as fragmented files result in slower access versus sequential access of non-fragmented files.

Uploaded by

owenamanda3
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
36 views

Defragmentation: File Systems Fragmentation Mass Storage Files Contiguous

Defragmentation is a process that physically organizes files on a storage device into contiguous regions to improve access speed by reducing disk head movement. It also compacts free space to prevent future fragmentation. Some utilities group related smaller files together. Defragmentation benefits systems with electromechanical drives as fragmented files result in slower access versus sequential access of non-fragmented files.

Uploaded by

owenamanda3
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 4

Defragmentation

In the maintenance of file systems, defragmentation is a process that reduces the amount of fragmentation. It does this by physically organizing the contents of the mass storage device used to store files into the smallest number of contiguous regions (fragments). It also attempts to create larger regions of free space using compaction to impede the return of fragmentation. Some defragmentation utilities try to keep smaller files within a single directory together, as they are often accessed in sequence. Defragmentation is advantageous and relevant to file systems on electromechanical disk drives. The movement of the hard drive's read/write heads over different areas of the disk when accessing fragmented files is slower, compared to accessing the entire contents of a nonfragmented file sequentially without moving the read/write heads to seek other fragments.

Disk formatting

Formatting a hard drive using MS-DOS Disk formatting is the process of preparing a hard disk drive or flexible disk medium for data storage. In some cases, the formatting operation may also create one or more new file systems

Antivirus

Antivirus or anti-virus software is software used to prevent, detect and remove software that is harmful to your computer

Firewall

A firewall can either be software-based or hardware-based and is used to help keep a home network secure. Its primary objective is to control the incoming and outgoing network traffic by analyzing the data and determining whether it should be allowed through or not, based on a predetermined rule set. A network's firewall builds a bridge between an home network that is assumed to be secure and trusted, and another network, usually an external (inter)network, such as the Internet, that is not assumed to be secure and trusted.

Cleanup tools
Disk Cleanup (cleanmgr.exe) is a computer maintenance utility included in Microsoft Windows designed to free up disk space on a computer's hard drive. The utility first searches and analyzes the hard drive for files that are no longer of any use, and then removes the unnecessary files. There are a number of different file categories that Disk Cleanup targets when performing the initial disk analysis: Aside from removing unnecessary files, users also have the option of compressing files that have not been accessed over a set period of time. This option provides a systematic compression scheme. Infrequently accessed files are compressed to free up disk space while leaving the frequently used files uncompressed for faster read/write access times. If after file compression, a user wishes to access a compressed file, the access times may be increased and vary from system to system. In addition to the categories that appear on the Disk Cleanup tab, the More Options tab offers additional options for freeing up hard drive space through removal of optional Windows components, installed programs, and all but the most recent System Restore point or Shadow Copy data in some versions of Microsoft Windows.

Performance
One should note that the actual amount of space gained may be only a small fraction of the amount indicated by Disk Cleanup. For example, on a tested computer Disk Cleanup indicates that 1,284 MB will be freed, but the actual result is 325 MB which is only 25% of the space estimated.

You might also like