In today’s environment of bigger disks storing not only larger files but more files than ever before, the effects of fragmentation worsen markedly with each day’s use. To keep up with same-day performance degradation, disks must be defragmented in real-time.
As points out, fragmentation grows as disks fill and workloads change. Modern desktop and laptop operating systems no longer need "always-on" defragmenters: they run scheduled optimization in the background and treat spinning platters and flash differently, so continuous, on-access defrag is unnecessary for most users and can waste I/O. (support.microsoft.com)
Solid-state drives change the rules: they have no seek penalty, so moving blocks to make a file contiguous rarely helps and can cause extra writes. OS-level TRIM/optimize and the SSD controller’s garbage collection are the correct mechanisms; Windows also runs occasional maintenance (retrim/optimization) when needed instead of blind, constant defragging. That behavior explains why third-party "real-time" defraggers are rarely beneficial for modern SSD systems. (hanselman.com)
Mac and Linux filesystems reduce fragmentation by design. APFS/HFS+ include on-the-fly heuristics and an “intelligent” defragmenter for rotational disks, while ext4 uses extent-based allocation and provides an online defrag tool (e4defrag) for the rare cases where fragmentation matters. For heavy HDD workloads (VM images, video scratch, archival servers) schedule offline optimization rather than using always-on agents. (nonstrict.eu)
For server-class workloads the right answer is targeted maintenance: file-layout planning, filesystem-specific tools, and database index reorganization/rebuilds — not a generic, always-on block defragmenter. A short practical checklist for administrators: identify drive type and workload; rely on the OS scheduler for consumer systems; run filesystem tools (e.g., sudo e4defrag -c /path) when extents show fragmentation; and use DB index maintenance and monitoring for databases instead of disk-level real-time defrag. (learn.microsoft.com)
# example: check ext4 fragmentation (no action taken)
sudo e4defrag -c /varWe're a friendly, industry-focused community of developers, IT pros, digital marketers, and technology enthusiasts meeting, networking, learning, and sharing knowledge.