the past lives in you
every time I think about Dilbert I think about this comic and how the question being asked is Not Stupid and its answer is genuinely interesting and arguably very important information anyone using a computer should know
This tag is incredibly really good because it is 100% why you might need to defrag your drives sometimes.
If you've ever bought a flash drive or something and wonder why its advertised as 512GB but you can only use 480GB or whatever of it, it's because that other 32GB is being used as a directory for where the actual files are located on the drive. (I'm pulling those numbers out of my ass but you get the idea.) If you had full access to the entire drive it would just be a stream of data with no idea where to start or end.
When you delete a file, you're not actually deleting the 1's and 0's. You're telling the directory "this specific range of data is no longer allocated to something and can be used for something else." It's the reason forensics can obtain data from a drive even if it's been "deleted" because for all intents and purposes, it's still there. It's also the reason you have Fast and Slow options for formatting a drive; the former just clears that directory and the latter actually goes in and tries to overwrite every bit of memory to wipe it clean.
When you fill up a drive and delete lots of files, those empty ranges of data can be spread out haphazardly. Defragging the drive is just moving things around so they're more organized and related data is all grouped together and that "free" space is consolidated.
Also yes Scott Adams is now dead ❤️
first: this is how i found out scott adams is dead, fantastic.
second: you dont need to defrag solid state drives since they read instantly. defragging is helpful for hdd's (hard disc drives) that have spinning magnetic platters that are read with a head that has to travel to the bits to find the data. defragging moves the bits around so the head doesnt have to travel as far or to random places, therefore speeding up reads
if you have a computer made in the past decade or so you very likely do not have a drive like this. you have solid state.
hdd's are mostly relegated to servers and large data storage pools (like a NAS)
Yeah the type of drive I chose as an example probably wasn't the best lmao you're completely right
"We've gone too far."
I'll bet the lemon stealing whore created this recipe
"Heavy on the citrus."
Yeah, I'll bet, bud.
hrrrrng..... women that are large....... and soft........
with BIG TUMMIES!!!!!!
