Disk Fragmentation

All versions of Windows come with a disk defragmenter. But what exactly is fragmentation? As you use your computer daily files get written and deleted constantly from the disk, either by yourself or by the operating system creating and removing temporary files. This process leave the disk in no sort of order and when new file are written to the disk they start to get written in the gaps on the disk. The fact that single files are written in different parts of the disk means that the disk has to go round the disk reading different parts instead of just streaming the data straight off the disk. This is called Fragmentation. The defrag program within windows sorts out the files into order again to make the disk perform faster. For more on Disk Fragmentation check out our Article on Defragging your hard disk

Connection Types

There are currently 4 connections for a hard disk. IDE (or ATA) SCSI, Serial ATA and USB. The most common is the IDE interface. This provides an 80 pin connection to most standard motherboards and you can't normally go wrong buying an IDE drive for your machine. SCSI connections often require extra hardware unless its built into your motherboard. SCSI hard disks are often faster but more expensive than there IDE counterparts. Serial ATA does away with parallel data transfer which has its problem of large wires and electrical interference. The Serial ATA standard is more reliable and uses smaller un-obtrusive wires. Smaller wires also means better air flow for your case. Serial ATA hard drives can also work faster at a higher data throughput giving your overall system a speed boost. The final connection type is the USB (Universal Serial Bus) connection. This connection is used for connecting external hard drives to your machine. While not as fast as the internal Serial ATA connection, it has the usefulness of being able to disconnect easily from the PC and taken to another PC and plugged straight in. Perfect for storing a lot of files to be used on multiple computers.