defragging

Defragging is the process of reorganizing data on a computer hard drive so that related pieces are stored together rather than scattered across the disk.

This speeds up file access by reducing the distance the read head must travel.

My computer was running slow, so I left it defragging overnight.

The term comes from defragmenting, which reverses the fragmentation that occurs as files are created, modified, and deleted over time.

With solid-state drives now common, defragging has become less relevant—SSDs have no moving parts and don't benefit from contiguous storage.