Which of the following is a benefit of disk defragmentation?

Disk defragmentation is a crucial process that enhances the performance of a computer's hard drive by reorganizing the data stored on it. When files are created, modified, or deleted, they can become fragmented, meaning that their data segments are scattered across different locations on the disk. This fragmentation leads to longer read and write times because the hard drive's read/write head must move to multiple locations to access a single file.

By defragmenting the disk, the process consolidates fragmented data, arranging it in contiguous blocks. This optimizes the way data is read and written, significantly improving the overall performance of the hard drive. When files are stored closer together, the drive can access them more quickly, resulting in faster system boot times, application launches, and file transfers. Thus, improving read and write times is a direct benefit of disk defragmentation, making it a vital maintenance task for systems using traditional hard drives.

The other options highlight actions and benefits that are not related to defragmentation. For example, completely erasing all data is indicative of a different process known as formatting, which is not what defragmentation does. Enhancing the security of stored files may involve different measures such as encryption and proper access controls