What happens if you defragment too much

Performing a defragmentation task on a HDD is just writing and reading data. This question, matches a basic template, for highly opinionated answers or just answers lead to third-party websites that "describe some basic concept of HDDs" — Ramhound.

For HDDs, you can defrag as much as you want. It won't "wear it off". BUT defragmenting is an exhaustive proccess. You should keep an eye on the HDD temperature while defragmenting and avoid accessing it. Add a comment. Active Oldest Votes. For more information, see This Microsoft Article Normally, these are written sequentially where there is a space on a disk that is big enough to hold a file.

For more information, see this webopedia article Defragmentation is the process of moving these chunks of data around on the disk to make sure that full files are written together again, see here for more. Hopefully my long rant helps somewhat.

Improve this answer. Fazer87 Fazer87 Good catch, thanks Tom The only risk is that defrag can take a long time, during which an accidental shut down, power loss, disconnection external drive , could leave the drive corrupted. The Overflow Blog. Less frustration and more confidence, solutions, answers, and tips in your inbox every week.

Basically after you defrag your machine once with any reasonable defragmenting tool whatever results are is likely to be good enough. Turn off all defragmentation. Let it get severely fragmented.

Time several different hard drive intensive processes to get a baseline Defragment Time the same processes, see if there is any improvement. Defragment again Repeat.

Normally, windows 7 performs a regularly scheduled defrag. My present self-built computer has two very large HDs and one huge external for safe storage. Anyway since it does no harm and may even be somewhat beneficial, I will continue defragging merrily every other day, it takes only 5 minutes, probably because of the frequency plus top speed processors and a very large RAM.

I had 3 computers in the past…. I still use this computer even though its storage is limited, and for me it is working best. Defragging an already defragged drive does not write more. An SSD, on the other hand, should never be defragged.

This can result in program errors. A common error in Photoshop—the Scratch Disk Full error — can be fixed by a simple defrag. If you're a normal user meaning you use your computer for occasional web browsing, email, games, and the like , defragmenting once a month should be fine. If you're a heavy user, meaning you use the PC eight hours a day for work, you should do it more often, approximately once every two weeks.

Also, if your computer is running slowly , consider defragmenting, as fragmentation may be the cause of slower operation. In Windows 10, Windows 8, and Windows 7, you can schedule defragmentation to happen as often as necessary.

Check inside the defrag desktop program to see how and when it's scheduled to run and then adjust accordingly. While defragmenting helps keep a hard drive in tiptop shape, it doesn't help solid-state drives SSDs. The good news is if you have Windows 10, Windows 8, or Windows 7, the operating system can identify when you have an SSD, and it won't run the traditional defragmenting operation.

Instead, it might run something called "optimization" to improve the performance of the SSD. Actively scan device characteristics for identification.

Use precise geolocation data. The person who told your friend that it damages the hard drive doesn't know their stuff. All parts wear out over time, simply by use.

Not doing defrag at all will shorten the life of the drive. That is a very good question and years ago when defragging was more common an easier question, but with the new OS's and better file systems, I have seen alot less fragmentation on alot of drives, and very rarely see that need to use it. I have also heard both ways on whether to defrag or not too. If a computer is running slow I first look for viruses, and malware, usually there is something and that does the trick, or check memory etc.

In my actual opinion I have not seen actual proof either way on this question. But it can't hurt, until your drives start dying fast don't worry about it if its your way. You are one light-user. I tend to run a defrag analysis every weekend, then go with what the program advises. Almost every time you write to a hard disk, you create a degree of fragmentation since the write head tends to drop bits of the file wherever there is space, rather than look around for a space that is big enough.

By not defragging you save the disk-thrashing that defragging involves - only to generate disk-thrashing as the read head searches for all the bits of the file it is looking for.

It is the hard drives that tend to fragment - it does not matter what operating system is running on them. I use this one a lot. I usually go with what the system says as to whether to defrag. I run disk cleanup, spyware, spybot and virus checks weekly on all my units and if needed or recommended by the system, a defrag. Going for extended periods without a defrag can take a long time to complete and might overheat the drive.

If left for too long, there might not be enough room on the drive to do an effective defrag or have to break the files into smaller pieces thus taking extremely long periods to complete the process.

I wouldn't put too much weight on what a local retailer said about anything related to PC maintence or troubleshooting. Especially if you are talking about one from one of the big box stores.