Fragmentation is, at its Core, the Most Dangerous Disease Your Hard Drive Encounters

Posted by B. Smith on Thursday, February 14, 2008 - 01:55 am:

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In this technological world that we now live in there are few things more important than the computers that we use. So important are these computers that many of us use them to store our most important documents, family pictures, work files, etc. on them. There is an almost blind trust that we have developed and that has led to a belief that when we want to retrieve these documents and files they will appear before us with little more than a click of our mouse.

While we know little about how or why our computers are able to perform these actions with such speed we come to expect them nonetheless. It is this attitude that generally exposes our computers to the fatal disease known as fragmentation.

Fragmentation is, at its core, the most dangerous disease your hard drive encounters. Left unresolved fragmentation will not only cause your computer performance to slow it will ultimately cause it to crash. That crash will not only end your computer’s life but will likely make it impossible for you to access those documents and files that were so important.

This deadly disease capitalizes on what most computer owners don’t recognize and that is, any computer not protected against fragmentation will eventually fall victim to it. We have become so accustomed to hearing about viruses and what sites and emails to avoid that we have completely neglected to learn about the inherent dangers that exist just by turning on our system.

Those dangers are present due to the nature in which hard drives save and store documents and files. The exact danger posed to our computer is caused by the very manner in which a hard drive is designed. That design operates with the idea that files should be stored in a contiguous fashion, meaning whenever a file is saved it is placed directly behind the previous file.