Cluster (Disk)

What Does Cluster (Disk) Mean?

A cluster, in the context of a hard disk, is a group of sectors within a disk and is the grouping by which disk files are organized. A cluster is larger than a sector, and most files fill many clusters of disk space. The hard drive is able to find all the clusters on a disk because each cluster possesses its own ID.

Techopedia Explains Cluster (Disk)

By using the disk utility program on a Mac or the ScanDisk program on Windows, users can free up disk space. This is known as defragmentation, and it boosts computer performance. Even if a user deletes several small files and adds a newer, larger file, that file may actually be contained in several small files within the hard drive. When the computer starts making unusual sounds, this may be a clue that clusters of small files need to be defragmented.

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Margaret Rouse

Technology Specialist

Margaret is an award-winning writer and educator known for her ability to explain complex technical topics to a non-technical business audience. Over the past twenty years, her IT definitions have been published by Que in an encyclopedia of technology terms and cited in articles in the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine, and Discovery Magazine. She joined Techopedia in 2011. Margaret’s idea of a fun day is to help IT and business professionals to learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages.

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