When a fragmented file is copied to another folder, the new copy is usually contiguous. When a fragmented file is moved to another folder, the file stays fragmented if the new folder is on the same partition. If the new folder is on another partition (such as when moving a file from drive C to drive D), the file usually becomes contiguous.

If a partition is defragmented using Windows® system tools, fragmented files with sizes up to a few tens of megabytes usually become contiguous again. Note that if files are already lost, defragmenting a partition will only worsen the situation.