What is Disk Fragmentation Caused By?
Disk fragmentation is caused over time as a natural result of creating and deleting files and folders, and installing and uninstalling software. Windows does not necessarily save files and folders in a single location on the hard drive. As files are deleted, and programs are uninstalled, smaller blocks of empty space are created where the file once existed on the disk. Files are saved to the first empty location on a hard drive. If the location is not large enough to hold the entire file, the remaining portion of the file is saved to the next available location. Over time, most files and folders will be saved in small pieces in different locations across the hard disk. The more fragmentation on a disk, the slower the computer’s file reading and writing performance will be. Fragmentation lowers disk performance (and speed) because the hard disk head must jump to different points on the disk to read the scattered parts of each file. This is a leading cause of performance degradation, as
