Defragging under XP pro

oreverb

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17 Dec 2001
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I'm trying to defrag my C: drive and after pressing Analyze I'm getting DfrgFat.exe application error. Then there's a message in the defragmenter saying "The connection to the defragmenter engine has been lost. Restart defragmentation." Any ideas how to get it to work?
 
Is it a FAT32 or NTFS partition? Using the built-in defragmenter I assume?

Plus give us your system specs, as this may help
 
It's FAT32 and the program is Microsoft's Disk Defragmenter, my system:

P2/350
324RAM
10gb+8gb Seagate
Riva TNT2

Btw is there a way to convert FAT32 to NTFS and would this give any gain in performance?
 
at the run command: convert [volume] /fs:ntfs [/v]

For example, convert c: /fs:ntfs /v

If you need more info, type convert NTFS in your help & support, it shoudl give you all the relevant information.

I should warn you that converting from FAt32 to NTFS will leave you with 512 k clusters, which will open you up to severe MFT and file defragmentation. There are other warnings in the help & support page.

I would recommend formatting and clean installing if your able to. This will give you the best results. Trust me, you WILL NOT be happy with a converted drive.
 
Yeah, that crappy scandisk never defrags my HD either...

Wonder why? :D

<runs - ducks for cover...>

:D
 
Well, I converted all my drives to NTFS from FAT32 and defragged them. As a result my boot time dropped to half and the system seems to be at least as fast as before the conversion. I've read thru some discussions on FAT32 vs. NTFS and it seems that it depends on the system in the whole which is the best choice.
 
I run my whole system on NTFS - it is far better at maintaining drive integrity than Fat32 - it will need far less Defrags NOT the opposite as sugested by Speed4Ever.

Other than the obvious security advanteges is the ability to be able to compress folders at will - a great feature for keeping your HDD space in check and beats trying to run the entire drive compressed (not recomended).
 
Originally posted by beatlesdb
I run my whole system on NTFS - it is far better at maintaining drive integrity than Fat32 - it will need far less Defrags NOT the opposite as sugested by Speed4Ever.

Other than the obvious security advanteges is the ability to be able to compress folders at will - a great feature for keeping your HDD space in check and beats trying to run the entire drive compressed (not recomended).

I never said that NTFS fragmented more than FAT32. I said that converting to NTFS from FAT32 will, from past experience from me and many others, will usually lead to more fragmentation (of course, I guess everyones experience will differ somewhat, depending on usage, etc.).

Its typically the rule of thumb *not* to convert, but I will concede that some people may have differing experience, but thats usually the exception to the rule.


EDIT: Spelling corrections :)
 
Originally posted by oreverb
Well, I converted all my drives to NTFS from FAT32 and defragged them. As a result my boot time dropped to half and the system seems to be at least as fast as before the conversion. I've read thru some discussions on FAT32 vs. NTFS and it seems that it depends on the system in the whole which is the best choice.

Really?

I did this a few times back in W2K, and my system ran like a dog both times. This experience is shared by many others. But, as I said in my previous post, I guess experiences may differ for some users. I've just never heard of anyone claiming a conversion was faster, because of the differing cluster sizes and the mangling of the MFT after conversion.

I'd be interested in hearing how it runs after a couple of days.

Of course, it could depend on the size of your files and your usage.

Please post back in a few days how fragmented it gets, I'd be interested in knowing if the XP optimizations counter this or something...

Thanks


.
 
Note: I hadn't defragged the drives before conversion (in a long time) and afterwards I ran Bootvis to optimize the booting; these probably has their effects to the overall speed. Currently I'm happy with it, though formatting all drives and making them NTFS would maybe make the system even faster.
 

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