ITPEC IP April 2023 Question 23
ITPEC IP April 2023 — Question 23 of 100
Disk fragmentation most likely makes stored data slower to read. Repeated creation, growth, and deletion of files can leave free space in separated regions. A file may then be stored in multiple nonconsecutive extents. On a mechanical hard disk, the read head must seek between these locations, increasing access time even though the file system can still reconstruct the data correctly.
Answer (d)
Why not others:
- (a) fragmentation does not determine whether anti-malware software detects a virus
- (b) the file system tracks allocated blocks, so nonconsecutive storage does not inherently make writes incorrect
- (c) it likewise does not inherently alter the data returned when reads succeed
Key rule: Fragmentation primarily harms mechanical-disk performance by increasing seek movement; it is not itself data corruption.
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