defrag

[1badtech]

here's my information;

your statement presumes that the files that become fragmented are the ones that you're accessing...this isn't always the case, for instance logs...there isn't any reason to defrag files that you don't acess

next, when you use the term "files are bunched together" you are talking about consolidating free space, not defragmentign a drive...we both agree, there should be some internal function to create sequential data writes..however once one of these professional product does "defragment free space" on a drive for a practical period of time where doing it again would involve moving more then one file around to defragment the space further...is not a good idea

second, head movement under normal use doesn't put the same pressure as head movement in a concentrated function...for instance if you drive from new york to california in a straght run you would do more damage to your car then the same amount of miles spread over a couple of weeks

your example would be correct if you weren't talking about daily defragmentation...daily defragmentation will cause more head movement then file access on a moderately fragmented drive

when the drive has a normal amount of fragmentation there is hardly any head movement regardless..once the file is accessed for the most part work comes from memory...new work will go to the hardrive and usually be fragmented from the original work anyway, same hardrive activity

as far as most users upgrading their computer before the drive would go bad regardless, I agree with this point, but most of us in tech hang on to our hardrives

I agree that daily defrag may not be good but most non-windows defrag program (at least diskeeper) is smart enough to skip a day or so if the drive is not fragmented. Even though it runs daily, it only defrags when necessary.

 

[jimi_81]

osnn has a post for PerfectDisk a little while back
great app. best one ive come across