Is there any benefit of disk defragmentation?
Yes, defragmenting a computer is a benefit to optimizing the computer. Over time your computer accumulates files and programs which are spread out all over the hard drive. Defregmentation will move those files closer together, and group them accordingly so it frees up more space on the hard drive so your computer runs faster and better.
How often you should defrag depends on how much you use your hard drive. If you constantly install and uninstall fairly large software, you may want to defrag frequently. Otherwise, defragging all the time actually is bad for the drive (can wear out the read/write heads). Defragging only when necessary helps extend the life of the drive by alleviating the need to constantly seek all over the drive for different bits of data. There is a very fine line balance between what is useful and excessive when it comes to defragmentation. Also, if you are using Vista, it is scheduled by default to defrag automatically – which may be why you’ve never seen a need to do so.
