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Disk Defragmentation: Should I Be Doing It?

Chances are if you’ve been using a computer for a while you’ve heard of “defragging” your hard drive. But, what exactly is disk defragmentation? Should you be doing it to your computer(s)? You may be wondering how fragmentation even occurs or how it can impact your computer’s performance. Today, Chipheads Computer Repair in the Twin Cities, Minnesota is discussing defragmentation and how it could benefit your device. Have questions? Interested in computer repair services? For any of your needs, simply reach out to our computer repair shop near you.



What Is Disk Defragmentation?

Disk defragmentation, also commonly referred to as “defrag” or “defragging” is pretty similar to organizing or cleaning a house. When data is written on hard drives, it is often spread across the drive, during disk defragmentation this data is reorganized on the hard drive, putting related pieces of data back together in proper fashion. Defragging your hard drive can actually increase computer performance.


How Does Disk Fragmentation Occur?

When it comes to data on your computer, it is constantly being written, resized, and deleted, naturally resulting in fragmentation of this data. When this data is spread across the hard drive, it actually takes longer to read and write to these files, resulting in slower computer performance and issues such as:


  1. File corruption

  2. Data loss

  3. Slow backup times

  4. Slow start times

  5. Slow shutdown

  6. Crashing

And more!


So to answer the main question: yes you should be performing disk defragmentation on your computer, it can help your device run more smoothly, efficiently, and quickly in the long run. On Windows 10 you can do so by typing in Defragment and Optimize Drives. For Mac OSX, users don’t necessarily need to worry about defragging as the system often prevents it from happening and can automatically defrag when needed.


Visit Our Twin Cities Computer Repair Shop Today

Need help defragging your computer? Lost data due to fragmentation issues? Having other issues with your device? For any of your Twin Cities computer repair needs, contact Chipheads Computer Repair, we’d be happy to help.

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