Which statement best describes how fragmentation affects data access times?

• A. Increases seek time due to non-contiguous data
• B. Decreases seek time due to contiguous data
• C. Has no impact on access times
• D. Only affects network speed

Answer: (A)

Fragmentation on storage means a file’s data blocks are scattered across the medium rather than laid out in one continuous run. When reading, the disk head must move to different positions to fetch these scattered blocks, causing multiple seeks and waiting for the disk to rotate into place. That extra head movement and rotational wait increase the overall time to access the data. If the data were stored contiguously, the read could proceed in a single, sequential pass with minimal head movement, keeping access times lower. On traditional hard drives, fragmentation thus raises access times because of the additional seeks; on SSDs, there’s no mechanical seek, so the impact is much smaller, though not entirely eliminated in other scenarios.