windows defragment

what exactly is happening in the background when you start windows defragment ? :)

http://computer.howstuffworks.com/question548.htm

thanks... going to read it now :)

Do yourself a favor and get a real defragmenter. The one that is packaged with Windows is garbage.

http://www.executivesoftware.com/coverpage.asp

It is well worth the money. Your computer will run faster, I guarantee it. (And no, I'm not tied to them in anyway, I'm just very impressed with their product).

Just out of curiosity, what is wrong with the windows defragmenter? Would someone be able to explain the issues?

Thanks :)

For a short answer:
Disk defragmentors first analyze your harddrive to see what needs to be sorted and where. Next it starts sorting all of the information on your harddrive. Once that's done, your computer will work faster because the data inside of your harddrive is easy to find because it's all sorted. When your computer is looking for a huge file, it can find the file in one nice stream of sectors. With the big file not being defragmented, the computer would have to be going all over the place on the harddrive to fetch the big file.

Basically:
Fragmented The file(s) is split in the different places on the harddrive
Defragmented The file(s) is in one nice stream on the harddrive

Defragmentation is great for games because they're fetching files constantly, and it hurts performance if the harddrive is taking forever on finding those files.

Thanks Kleid-0 :) I understand the importance and reasons for defragmenting, but what I was hoping for was an explanation of the different defragment software. As ober indicated in his post:

Quote:

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Do yourself a favor and get a real defragmenter. The one that is packaged with Windows is garbage.

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What would describe a "real" defragmenter and what does it offer that is different to windows defragmenter?

One issue that comes to mind with Symantecs DiskSweep (I think that is what it was called) is that it defragments the swap file whereas the defragmenter that comes with Windows95/98 does not. I could be wrong about this. :rolleyes:

As far as I remember, since the last time I defragmented my XP machine, the defragmenter still does not defragment the swap. Again I might be wrong about this also. :D

Any input on this?