Fragments dialog

This dialog shows comprehensive information about a file, such as the list of the fragments the file consists of, the number of fragments and the internal fragmentation. To display the Fragments dialog, select File > Fragment information.

In the upper area of the dialog, you can see the following information about the file:

Information	Description
Name	Displays the name of the file.
Path	Displays the path of the file.
Type	Displays the type of the file.
Size	Displays the actual size of the file.
Size on disk	Displays the actual amount of space being occupied by the file on the disk.
Fragments	Displays how many fragments the file consists of.
Clusters	Displays the number of the clusters occupied by the file on the disk.
Fragmentation	Displays the internal fragmentation of the file.

Clusters and fragments

In computer file systems, a cluster represents the smallest amount of disk space that the file system uses when allocating space to store a file.

In NTFS, clusters may be referred to within the file space and within the volume space:

• A virtual cluster number (VCN) is the offset of a cluster from the beginning of a file. VCN 0 (zero) refers to the first cluster of a file.
• A logical cluster number (LCN) is the offset of a cluster from the beginning of a volume. LCN 0 (zero) refers to the first cluster on a volume.

When not all clusters of a file are contiguous (clusters that are adjacent to each other on the disk), file is called fragmented.

A fragment is a run (interval) of contiguous clusters.

The fragments list

The fragments list shows the fragments the file consists of. By default, the fragments list is sorted by virtual cluster numbers, but you can use the Sort list by box to sort the fragments list by one of the following criteria:

Criteria	Description
File clusters	Fragments are sorted by virtual cluster numbers (VCN), in ascending order.
Disk clusters	Fragments are sorted by logical cluster numbers (LCN), in ascending order. This lets you see the order among the fragments of the file, and so how fragments are stored out of order on the volume (for example, the first fragment of the file may be stored at a higher LCN than a subsequent fragment).
Fragment size	Fragments are sorted by their size, in ascending order.

Descriptions of the columns in the fragments list

The fragments list has the following columns:

Column	Description
# (file)	Displays the ordinal number of the fragment.
Start cluster (file)	Displays the starting cluster of the fragment. This is an offset relative to the beginning of the file.
End cluster (file)	Displays the ending cluster of the fragment. This is an offset relative to the beginning of the file.
Start cluster (disk)	Displays the starting cluster of the fragment. This is an offset relative to the beginning of the volume.
End cluster (disk)	Displays the ending cluster of the fragment. This is an offset relative to the beginning of the volume.
Clusters	Displays the length of the fragment, in clusters.
Size (bytes)	Displays the size of the fragment, in bytes.
% of file	Displays the percentage of the fragment size with respect to the size of the file.