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If I have a fragmented hard drive, will duplicating the drive recreate the data fragments? Or does the duplication process clean those up? Does it depend on the duplication tool?

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  • If you are copying a drive, sector by sector, then the data will restored to that same sector.
    – Ramhound
    Jan 22, 2016 at 16:47

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It depends on the methods you choose from the cloning tool. There are bit-for-bit methods that will duplicate the drive identically in every way. Other methods will clone the data and partitions, but write the data sequentially and remove fragments. Most cloning tools will guide you through the process and explain what their options do.

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  • Do you have any suggestions on the tools that might have the best options regarding this? Thanks for your feedback.
    – A-ron
    Jan 23, 2016 at 4:53
  • @A-ron what exactly are you trying to accomplish?
    – Keltari
    Jan 23, 2016 at 5:12
  • My client has a lot of old drives. He got Drive Genius which tells him one of his drives is 53% fragmented. He considers defragging it, which I know isn't generally a big concern for Mac users unless there's a lot of data moving. Since this is a backup drive, and not a new one, I was concerned that the amount of usage to defrag it would have a deleterious effect on its lifespan if all we're going to do is dupe it for archive purposes. I'd hate for him to defrag it for a clean clone and then have the drive fail on him if he needed it because we spent the time defragging.
    – A-ron
    Jan 23, 2016 at 5:25
  • there is nothing wrong with defragging a drive, not there is ever really a need to
    – Keltari
    Jan 23, 2016 at 5:30

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