In computing terminology, file system fragmentation sometimes also called file system aging, is the inability of a file system to lay out related data pieces sequentially or contiguously on the disk storage media. This is an inherent problem in storage-backed file systems that allow in-place or live modification of their contents. This is one of the primary use cases of data fragmentation. File system fragmentation increases disk head movement or seeks required for fetching the whole file, which are known to hinder throughput and performance of disk reads and writes. As a remedial action, the motive is to reorganize files and free space back into contiguous areas or blocks so as to keep all pieces of a file data together at one place, a process called defragmentation. Ok, give me an example please? let's attempt at explaining in a simple, non-technical manner as to why some file systems suffer more from fragmentation than others. Rather than simply stumble through lots of dry te...
An Architect's diary of fixes