defragged the USB Flash drive. Now the laptop (& other computers say I have to reformat to use. This means loss of all data; n

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Rooster0007

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Feb 2, 2016
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Defragged flash drive. All computers demand reformat to use. Used IObit defragger. This means loss of all data! Why'd I store it in the first place if the computer wants me to erase everything BEFORE I can use it. This is insane! He'p me!
 
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InvalidError
I second that: solid-state storage does not need defragging. All defragmenting does is throw away dozens, possibly hundreds, of write-erase cycles.

As jsmith said, you may have ruined your USB drive by defragmenting it.
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Saberus

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Aug 23, 2013
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You're hosed. Defrag's meant for spinning disks to move file fragments into sequential order for faster access, because if it's scattered across the disk the head has to be swung into the next position to continue reading. Since flash memory doesn't have to move a read head into position, the files can be fragmented until the cows come home, it will load just as fast as if it was sequential.

Think of a fragmented drive like a Choose Your Own Adventure book.

The hard drive is like a paper copy, to carry on go to page 37, *shuffle-shuffle* then page 12, *shuffle-shuffle*, and so on.

SSD/Flash drive, it's like an electronic copy with links. To carry on click [here] *click*.

It's not an exact or perfect analogy, but I feel it suffices.

 
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