Encryption & Defragmentation

Question	Answer
What is Encryption?	> "Scrambling" of data > Applies a special encryption algorithm to the data > Strong algorithms require long mathematical research > Special key is required to decrypt the data > Usually within the OS to encrypt and decrypt files in real time
What is Fragmentation?	> Files in secondary storage are not always written in one continuous block (i.e., they may be split up) > Fragmented files - those that are not contiguous - take longer to load
What is Defragmentation?	> Software that reorganises the data on the storage device so that all files are stored in adjacent blocks > Defragmented disks increase the performance of the computer
How does Fragmentation affect SSDs?	> Fragmented data does not take any longer to load, since SSDs provide random acces > SSDs should not be defragmented, since the reorganisation can shorten its lifetime as it pushes it towards the read/write cycle limit

Resource summary

	Created by Malachy Moran-Tun over 2 years ago

	Copied by Malachy Moran-Tun over 2 years ago