File Fragmentation
Fragmentation is caused when an operating system breaks a file into pieces because there is not enough space on the storage device where the file was originally saved.
One example of this would be where a file was originally saved, then modified causing the file to be larger in physical space than first anticipated, the operating system will then break the file into 2 or more pieces and store them in different parts of the storage area.
The system would then keep a record of where the different parts of the file are stored, this is achieved through the use of a File Allocation Table (FAT) or similar file system such as NTFS. Defragmentation
Defragmentation is the term given to the process of scanning the file system and rejoining the split files back into consecutive pieces.
The process of defragmenting can be time consuming, but it is one of the easiest ways to increase the performance of your PC, the frequency of which a PC should be defragmented will directly depend on the amount of usage. Defragmentation Software
To defragment your hard disk drive you do not need any external software if you are using any of the windows versions as operating system, as they include one. But there exists much faster software that can really help reduce defragmentation speed in large disks.
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