Subject

    Computer Science

    Topic

    Computer Hardware

    What does a 'defragmentation' utility do for a hard disk drive (HDD)?

    a)
    It physically rearranges the magnetic particles on the platter.
    b)
    It reorganizes the data on the drive so that parts of a file are stored in contiguous blocks.
    c)
    It deletes temporary files to free up space.
    d)
    It checks the drive for physical errors.

    Explanation

    Over time, as files are created and deleted, their parts can become scattered across different physical locations on the platter (fragmentation). Defragmentation consolidates these parts, which can improve read performance on an HDD because the read/write head doesn't have to move as much to access a complete file. This is generally not needed for SSDs.

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