Defining Fragmentation

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Before we move deeper into the argument, though, we should define our terms. What does fragmentation mean? File fragmentation is the allocation of noncontiguous sectors on a disk; that is, instead of placing files in one location, parts of it are scattered all over the disk. Essentially, fragmentation means that files are broken into multiple pieces rather than residing in one contiguous block on a disk. When a file is opened, therefore, the head has to gather up all these pieces in order to display the file. Thus, the user experiences delays in waiting for a document to appear. If the condition is in an advanced state (it is quite common for server files to be splintered into thousands of pieces), it might even take as long as 15 seconds to open a document that previously was available in one second.

Stated simply, fragmentation is generated and accentuated by the multiple read/write operations of modern-day computing. When you write a lot of data, delete many files, write many more files, and delete some more, you end up with lots of small pockets of space and eventually not enough space to write large files into. As a result, these files have to be written into a series of smaller parts or fragments. It gets a little more complex than that, however. The very process of loading an application results in severe fragmentation of directories and files. Windows tends to scatter directories willy-nilly throughout a disk. As soon as you load the OS, in fact, you effectively have a badly fragmented system. Some users report 50 percent fragmentation after loading Windows 2000, Office, and a couple of applications — and this occurs on a disk that is three quarters empty. Try it. Take a brand new disk. Load Windows 2000 and see how much fragmentation exists.

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