DEV Community

Cover image for How many passes does disk defragmenter do
CoderLegion
CoderLegion

Posted on • Edited on • Originally published at kodblems.com

2 1

How many passes does disk defragmenter do

🎉 Before you dive into this article...

🚀 Check out our vibrant new community at CoderLegion.com!

💡 Share your knowledge, connect with like-minded developers, and grow together.

👉 Click here to join now!

Defragmenting the disk is removing all random free spaces, then collecting all the files and storing them in contiguous blocks of memory. It makes the recovery of files much faster.

A hard drive consists of a head from which it reads data. The operating system has a map of all files and is saved. Direct your head to a specific location and access the data stored there. The head should traverse the disk to that location and read the data.

Now imagine if your computer's disk had files saved with many spaces in between. The main head would have to change its location repeatedly to read a file. It will effectively increase the access time to the file. Disk defragmentation attempts to eliminate this extra time.

How many passes does it take to Defragment?
Defragmentation depends on the hardware being used. If the drive is larger, the longer it will take; If their are more files stored, the longer it will be for the computer to defragment all of them. The time varies from one computer to another since each has its box.

The time can be from several minutes to several hours to finish. Of course, you can continue to use your computer when the process is running, but it is recommended to avoid copying or to move files as it will only make the process much longer. The time can even be as long as 24 hours if you have a substantial hard drive full of all sorts of things.

Defragmentation also does the tasks in passes. He makes a rough pass at first and refines it next time. After each pass, the hard drive becomes more organized and faster to access.

What are the additional commands that we can pass to the module?
There are a few command-line options for you to declare that will make the defrag process change to your liking. The central command on the command line is "defrag C:", where "C:" is the drive you are trying to defragment.

(r)This is the default defragmentation setting and only defragments file segments smaller than 64MB
(c) The command defragments all volumes on the computer. You do not need to specify a drive letter when using this command.
(w) Performs a full defragmentation of files of all sizes on a specified disk, regardless of their size.
(I) In this way, defragmentation is only carried out when the computer is idle.
(v) This command ensures that the defragmentation modules display full reports at the end.
(b) Optimize startup files only.
(a) This command will analyze the selected drive and display a report including the scan and all defragmentation reports.

Anyone can easily pass the command lines by using the command line when you launch the disk defragmenter manually.

Hope this post helped you, like, comment and share! :)

AWS Security LIVE!

Join us for AWS Security LIVE!

Discover the future of cloud security. Tune in live for trends, tips, and solutions from AWS and AWS Partners.

Learn More

Top comments (0)

AWS Security LIVE!

Tune in for AWS Security LIVE!

Join AWS Security LIVE! for expert insights and actionable tips to protect your organization and keep security teams prepared.

Learn More

👋 Kindness is contagious

Discover a treasure trove of wisdom within this insightful piece, highly respected in the nurturing DEV Community enviroment. Developers, whether novice or expert, are encouraged to participate and add to our shared knowledge basin.

A simple "thank you" can illuminate someone's day. Express your appreciation in the comments section!

On DEV, sharing ideas smoothens our journey and strengthens our community ties. Learn something useful? Offering a quick thanks to the author is deeply appreciated.

Okay