Photo AI
A restaurant has a computer-based ordering system which is running slowly - OCR - GCSE Computer Science - Question 9 - 2019 - Paper 1
Question 9
A restaurant has a computer-based ordering system which is running slowly. A technician has said that the hard disc drive is fragmented. The technician has suggested... show full transcript
Worked Solution & Example Answer:A restaurant has a computer-based ordering system which is running slowly - OCR - GCSE Computer Science - Question 9 - 2019 - Paper 1
Step 1
Explain how the restaurant's hard disc could have become fragmented.
Answer
The hard disc drive can become fragmented due to various reasons, primarily related to the way data is written and deleted on the drive. When files are saved, they occupy space on the disk, and if there isn't enough contiguous space available, the file is split into pieces that are stored in different locations.
Additionally, regular use of the computer, including creating, modifying, and deleting files, can lead to fragmentation. For instance, if large files are deleted and smaller files are subsequently saved, the new files may fill the gaps left by the deleted ones, causing other files to be scattered across the disk. This results in the read/write heads of the hard drive having to move more frequently to access different pieces of the same file, leading to slower performance.
Step 2
Explain how defragmentation software could overcome the issue of the slow computer system.
Answer
Defragmentation software addresses the fragmentation issue by reorganizing the scattered files on the hard disc into contiguous blocks. This process involves analyzing the disk, identifying fragmented files, and then moving those pieces to consolidate them into one location.
By doing so, the read/write heads of the hard drive have to travel a shorter distance to access files, which significantly speeds up read and write operations. This optimization not only improves the overall speed of the computer system but also enhances file retrieval times, resulting in a smoother user experience.