Disk Utilities
This tool rearranges fragmented files into a single, contiguous block on an HDD.
What is Disk Defragmenter (or Optimize Drives)?
This type of modern drive should not be defragmented due to wear on its flash memory cells.
What is an SSD (Solid State Drive)?
The name for a copy of your files and system configuration saved to an external location for recovery.
What is a Backup?
A grinding or repeated clicking noise from a mechanical drive often indicates this type of imminent failure.
What is a hardware failure (or drive failure)?
This command-line utility in Windows is used to check the integrity of a hard disk's file system.
What is Chkdsk (or Check Disk)?What is Disk
Fragmentation is a major performance concern for this older type of drive, which uses spinning platters.
What is an HDD (Hard Disk Drive)?
This feature helps recover the operating system and settings to a previous point in time without affecting personal files.
What is System Restore?
A good practice to perform before running a defragmentation utility.
What is running Disk Cleanup (or backing up data)?
This utility removes temporary files, trash, and old installation files to free up space.
What is Disk Cleanup?
This feature is sent to an SSD controller to let it know which blocks of data are no longer in use and can be erased.
What is the TRIM command?
This utility is run to search for and attempt to repair bad sectors on a physical drive.
What is Error-Checking (or Chkdsk)?
This type of system file should be regularly updated to patch security flaws and improve performance.
What are System or OS Updates?
This feature automatically runs optimization on a schedule and manages TRIM for SSDs.
What is Scheduled Optimization?
The common acronym for a traditional drive that has rotating disks and a read/write head.
What is HDD?
This is the state of having file pieces scattered in multiple non-contiguous locations on a disk.
What is fragmentation?
A file system like NTFS or FAT32 must be applied to a drive during this preparatory process.
What is formatting?
Windows utility used to divide a single physical drive into multiple logical storage units.
What is Disk Management?
The process of physically relocating data on a drive to make sequential sectors faster to access.
What is defragmentation?
This electrical component should be used to protect a computer from unexpected power surges or drops.
What is a Surge Protector (or UPS)?
This acronym is a common self-monitoring system built into modern hard drives that reports on drive reliability.
What is S.M.A.R.T. (Self-Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Technology)?