joe sloan njktmsusacom mike mcmullin wrote see intelligent make lives much easier every file system pluses minuses real answer dont particular file system handles constantly expanding files disk allocation information available online quality bookstores otoh pc file systems like office files tossed randomly use every weekend people hired come organize files thats true fat sets aside certain amount room particular file cluster size file grows past cluster size allotted another cluster pointed fat table file continued schema ends wastes space noncontiguous file parts one defrags order rearrange file written disk contiguously thus avoiding overhead due disks readwrite head jumping disk surface perhaps didnt make clear office files analogy well analogy cant even claim credit originally heard french linux user effect files get fragmented reorganized said possibility fragmentation unix file systems even tools reorganize things antivirus companies offering linux antivirus programs general neither ever needed practice terms defragger know linux virii terms defragger ive never defragged linux filesystem neither desktops hundreds servers ive responsible dont know linux user joe wed 06 aug 2008 041923 0800 opensuse defragging possible necessary