-
After 15+ years, we've made a big change: Android Forums is now Early Bird Club. Learn more here.
Defrag app?
- Thread starter SirSpace
- Start date
There is no need for defragging with solid-state/flash memory. It's only used with mechanical hard drives to speed up access.
cat_sorcerer
Lurker
What is the purpose of defragging??
On disc drives, defragmenting migrates the data into the center of the disc (and also aligns all the same programs together) for faster reading. It's not such of an issue with SSDs, because the device can read anywhere on the SSD at the same speed. Where a disc drive needs to spin the disc faster to read the information that physically is stored on the outer edge of the disc.
Android devices use solid-state drives, so this isn't required.
Android devices use solid-state drives, so this isn't required.
BigRedGonzo
Android Expert
Defragging re-consolidates files stored on a hard drive. Quite frequently, on a Windows PC, as files are written to the hard drive, they are split up to fill in empty or blank spaces on the hard drive. The operating system has to manage (keep track of) where each piece of each file is located in the File Allocation Table. So, for example, if you have 10 files on your computer and each file is split into 10 pieces to fill in empty space, your File Allocation Table has to keep track of the 10 original files and the 100 pieces to make sure you have access to the files. Now expand that thought to thousands of files and the FAT has to keep track of hundreds of thousands of file bits. When you defrag, the system moves pieces of files around so that each file is written to a contiguous portion of the hard drive. This means that the operating system only has to keep track of the file in one spot. As you use the computer, this splitting of files happens more frequently and therefore the system begins to slow a bit. With normal fragmentation of the hard drive, the normal user should never see a difference in system performance, but as fragmentation gets higher and higher(as time goes on) the system can slow down drastically.
Hope this helps a bit.
BigRedGonzo
Crashdamage
Android Expert
Android/Linux never needs defragging, even if it runs on a disk instead of solid state memory.
jefboyardee
Extreme Android User
Fragmentation is a very real issue with Androids, but it pertains to a completely different problem, that of having a thousand different phones from a hundred different carriers, each with their own interpretation of a dozen operating systems.
Crashdamage
Android Expert
That's called freedom of choice.
BigRedGonzo
Android Expert
The alternative is a fresh fruit. Most folks find it very unappetizing.
BigRedGonzo
jefboyardee
Extreme Android User
I didn’t say I don’t want freedom of choice or that I prefer unappetizing fresh fruit. I was just letting the OP know what the word ‘fragmentation’ means in the Android world.