Take the 2-minute tour ×  There has been a question about
whether it improves your computer's performance - my question is
based on the precept that magnetic audio and video tapes, for
example, quickly show damage if data is over-written many times:
a computer engineer I met introduced me to the idea that since a
PC's hard drive is a form of magnetic data storage, it too will
suffer from needless re-writing, especially when done routinely
and therefore overwriting the same sections of the drive.
Defragmenting seemed more important with smaller HDD sizes, is
it now a damaging practice we can do without?  share|improve
this question I strongly suspect your perception that magnetic
tape wears out on reuse has to do with the fact that there is
physical wear as the magnetic coating is dragged across the
read/write heads. Hard drives, in contrast, do not involve
physical contact between the heads and the magnetic coating. The
heads float on a layer of air. –  MετάEd Nov 28 '11 at 23:28 the
drives do however contai