Anyone who has spent time in the computer business and has some grasp of hardware issues understands fragmentation. For those whose concept of hardware is limited to “it’s the part I can kick”, here is a quick and painless overview.
I like analogies so let’s think of a disk drive as a very large, tall building having many rooms and many floors. The disk head is you. Your task is to run around and “read” something from particular rooms (blocks). A simple thought exercise would suggest it is easier to read rooms “in order” on a floor rather than scattered...