Defragmenting By Directories

[ChrisGreaves]

At the risk of thrashing Eileen's Lounge hard drives, if nothing else ...
... I am now of the mind that defragmentation of directories (which I think of as Windows-owned files of file names) is the only type of defragmentation that makes sense.
Or at least, offers the best ROI.

Speed-of-access to the start of a file ought by definition take precedence over speed of access to the stream of data that is the contents of that file.

A hundred years ago I would have been arguing for filing-cabinet labels that can be read from twenty-feet away as being significantly more important than the typeface used on the manilla paper folders.

A hundred years ago I would have been arguing for an up-to-date record of where each file was as more important than the typeface used on the manilla paper folders.

Perhaps Windows nowadays is smart enough to load all the directories into memory, or to retain them in memory as long as possible, to speed up that first-level access to a user's files.