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What is a fragmented file in a computer?

In: Computers [Edit categories]

Answer:

Files are stored on a computer hard drive in sectors. If a single file is stored in multiple areas (sectors) then it is considered fragmented.

Basically, fragmentation slows down the computers abilty to to access a file quickly and efficently. A defrag program might reconnect the segments of the file and speed up the process of reading a file into memory.

This is a simple explanation. For more information do a search for "defrag"

First answer by Justintpetersen. Last edit by Plucas. Contributor trust: 1281 [recommend contributor ]. Question popularity: 1 [recommend question].

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