Disadvantages of Fragmentation
- It can degrade system performance, particularly when reading or accessing fragmented files. When a system needs to access a fragmented file, it must search for and retrieve the various fragments from various locations on the storage medium, which can take longer than accessing a contiguous file. This can reduce system performance and make it more difficult to access the file.
- It can make managing and organizing files on a system more difficult. When a file is fragmented, it is stored on the storage medium in multiple non-contiguous blocks, making it more difficult to locate and access the file.
- It has the potential to shorten the lifespan of a storage medium, such as a hard disc or solid-state drive. When a system writes data to a storage medium, it can cause the medium to wear out. Data stored in non-contiguous blocks can cause more wear and tear on the medium than data stored in contiguous blocks, potentially reducing the medium’s lifetime.
- It can consume more system storage space. When a file is fragmented, the system must store additional information on the storage medium about the location of each fragment. This can consume more space and limit the amount of space available for other files.
What is Fragmentation in Operating System?
The process of dividing a computer file, such as a data file or an executable program file, into fragments that are stored in different parts of a computer’s storage medium, such as its hard disc or RAM, is known as fragmentation in computing. When a file is fragmented, it is stored on the storage medium in non-contiguous blocks, which means that the blocks are not stored next to each other.