defrag question.

T

taz

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was defrag useful?

i don't defrag my hdd often and when i do defrag my hdd i didn't notice much performance boost.. i noticed diskeeper took so long to defrag my hdd.. its defragging speed is about the same as the native winxp defragger, which is made by the same comp.. are there any defrag program that defrag hdd faster than diskeeper?

does defrag have anything to do with the physical health of a hdd? ie will a heavily fragmented hdd die easily than the defragged hdd?
 
there was a good 1 i used to use on win 98 called power defrag 2 but i dont know if its xp compatable but i use the norton sys works prog its got everything i need :D
 
Diskeeper (and thefore the WinXP one) get quicker the more you use them. schedual it to run once a week (more if you install/unistlall alot of programs or move alot of files around). I run it every day and it takes a few minutes on my C drive and about 30 second on my D drive
 
About Defragers

I personally find the one the defragger that comes with windows completely useless.

If you notice after you defrag your computer that afterwards a good portion of your hdd is still fragmented.

A fragmented computer doesn't effect performance heavily it simply increases access time. Things take an extra second to load or something like that.

I've had a 60 gig hdd 98% fragmented one time. Defragged it and saw no performance change.

I use Speed disk now that comes with norton system works 2002.

It gets the job done.

Also note that the more free space you have for swapping the faster it'll get. Defragger programs will tell you that you need at least 15% in order for the program to be able to defrag effectively.
 
Re: About Defragers

Originally posted by wbeach
I personally find the one the defragger that comes with windows completely useless.

If you notice after you defrag your computer that afterwards a good portion of your hdd is still fragmented.

.
What you are seeing is space that is reserved for system files - thus reducing fragmentation
 
thx for the info everyone. :)

still one question left..

does defragging have anything to do with a hdd's physcial health? ie. does a undefragged hdd have a higher percentage of dieing?
 
Good question dont know for sure but if your drive is fragmented it takes longer to access the data this could lead to extra wear & tear on the drive
 
I have used Norton's Speed Disk and Diskeeper. Speed Disk did a lousy job and never got my drives fragment free. Diskeeper did a much better job . If you want the best check out Perfect Disk. It does a better job than even Diskeeper and does it faster too. It impressed me enough that even tho I had a full working version of Diskeeper I shelled out the $45 for the full version of Perfect Disk
 
the degree of fragmentation doesnt really affect the drive failure probability, but defragging can be very HDD intensive and can, though I have never seen it happen, cause a drive to fail.
 
Yes, if you didnt bother defragging, u would notice big slow downs when opening or saving files, or searching.

Also if the files get fragmented enough they will become corrupted.

A good rule of thumb which I employ and works well is to defrag after every program you install, and then after that defrag once a week (thats assuming u use your PC daily..otherwise defrag every two weeks or so).

Also on a simillar schedule run scandisk, to check for any potential errors b4 they get too bad.
 
"Also if the files get fragmented enough they will become corrupted. "

This is incorrect. The only thing that can cause a file to become corrupted are hardware issues or drivers incorrectly working. Fragmentation itself can NOT cause corruption.


"the degree of fragmentation doesnt really affect the drive failure probability, but defragging can be very HDD intensive and can, though I have never seen it happen, cause a drive to fail."

Correct to a point. Defragmenting can NOT cause a hard drive to fail (software can not cause hardware failures). What can happen, though, is that since defragmenting is such an I/O intensive process and can "touch" parts of the hard drive seldom accessed, it can bring to the surface hard drive issues that might not normally be seen.

- Greg/Raxco Sofwtare

Disclaimer: I work for Raxco Software, the maker of PerfectDisk - a commercial defrag utility, as a systems engineer in the support department.
 
Yes Defragging doesnt cause the drive to fail, but the intensive I/O process can result in areas of the disk being accessed which may result in a failure.

Also now that I think abou it, I have seen this happen, ScanDisk then Defrag caused my IBM hard drive to die once. Everything corrupted and such.
 

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