question about hard drives

Z

zhao

there are no accidents
might be a dumb question and might have been covered before, but:

if it's true that when you trash information it doesn't really go away, that the data is still in the hard drive somewhere, recoverable by a data retrieving specialist using proper software,

what accounts for the obvious improved speed of the drive after you clear up space???
 
B

baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
As I understand it, the operting system just marks the deleted file(s) as space that can now be used, rather than going to all the hassle of permanently deleting it (which would take quite a lot of time, relatively speaking). The increase in speed would therefore be due to, in the case of a search for example, the system neglecting to search the files you have 'deleted' any longer.
 
Z

zhao

there are no accidents
that makes sense... far as searches go. but all the software runs better too? maybe it's for the same reason: system using the previously occupied space "like" empty space, even if it is not exactly empty?
 
C

Client Eastwood

Well-known member
if you're using Windows...

if its really slow you could try to defrag your disk. it'll rearrange files that are saved as broken blocks into contiguous blocks and improve performance. set a restore point before doing this.
 
Z

zhao

there are no accidents
nah i'm on mac which defrags by itself. which is why is good idea to leave the computer on, especially over weekends.

i'm no having problems was just wondering about this...
 
D

Dunninger

-
zhao said:
that makes sense... far as searches go. but all the software runs better too? maybe it's for the same reason: system using the previously occupied space "like" empty space, even if it is not exactly empty?
Click to expand...

Every disc access is a search if you will, the operating system has to figure out which blocks on the hard disc it has to read or write. For this there's some sort of index (how exactly that works depends on your operating system and file system), which is faster if it's lean and clean and not a cluttered mess.
 
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