DeFragmentation Vs Formating HDD

[Andyiz]

Dear Friends,
I wanted to know the diffrence between Defragmentation and formating the HDD.
Which one Enchances the efficency of HDD?

I am going to format my HDD, so whether i can perform, defragmentation after Formating? If yes then Will it enchance my HDD performance?

Plz help
Tnx in advance

[godsownman]

I feel you are confused.

Defragementation

This means to de-fragment i.e. to collect all the fragments of a particular file and put them together so that it opens faster the next time.

But , you cannot constantly defragment the drive .

Format

This means to clear the harddisk of all its files ( DELETE all ) . This is done before you generally install the OS again.

I have seen many people who do this every 4-6 months.

I have never felt that the performance of the computer has improved after a defragment.

Hope this helps.

[Vishal Gupta]

If u hv data and don't want to format the drive, then Defragmentation is the BEST option.

Otherwise I'll prefer formatting the drive in stead of defragmenting it...

And yes! U can defragment the drive after formatting and instaaling the OS or storing other DATA in it.

[Apollo]

Not really suggesting anything. Rather, I'm asking a question: Is it a rumour or confirmed fact that with formatting your HDD, you are reducing its life?

[ramprasad]

Hi,

Its true that Formatting reduces Life of HDD.
I defragment every 6 months, just to make my sys a little faster....


Regards,
Ramprasad

[vignesh]

Defragmenting also increases your system speed.Its actually should be done atleast once a month.

[Keith Sebastian]

Defragmentation vs Formating.

The first one is similar to rearranging, tidying up all the stuff in your room. Result - Everything's more easily accessible.

The latter would be equivalent to taking all the stuff from your room and dumping it in a landfill. Result - empty room.



Or you could read tech definitions here -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defragment
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disk_formatting

-Keith