Which of the following rewrites file data to occupy contiguous clusters, reducing seek times on an HDD?

The process of disk defragmentation involves reorganizing the files on a hard disk drive (HDD) so that they occupy contiguous clusters. When files are saved and deleted over time, they can become fragmented, meaning they are spread out across various non-adjacent locations on the disk. This fragmentation can lead to longer seek times, as the read/write head must move to different locations to access the pieces of a single file.

Disk defragmentation solves this problem by rewriting the file data in a way that it sits in consecutive sectors or clusters, significantly improving access speed. By reducing seek times, the overall performance of the HDD is enhanced, allowing for quicker read and write operations. This is particularly important for systems that rely on HDDs, as they have mechanical parts that can slow down performance compared to solid-state drives (SSDs), which do not have this issue with fragmentation.

Other options do not serve the purpose of organizing data for better performance. Formatting a drive, whether it's a quick or full format, sets up a file system on the storage device but does not reorganize existing files. Purging data typically refers to securely deleting files, and crypto erase is a method used for sanitizing storage by encrypting the data and then