Free Defragmentation Utility from Diskeeper

[writeco]

Recently there was a thread disputing the performance benefits of defragging your hard drives. I personally do not share this point of view since defragmentation can reduce the number of reads and writes to a hard drive. This has got to improve performance. However, the level of performance increase, which is realized, depends on how badly your hard drive was defragmented initially.

For those of a similar mindset, Diskeeper is offering a free utility to analyze fragmentation over a network. To download this utility, go to this address:
http://snipurl.com/b3l7

[Tortanick]

just patch windows to use the ext2 or ext3 filesystems, they hardly ever fragment, I havn't even seen a defragmenter for them.

[writeco]

Tortanick,

Your comment is intriguing. I thought that all files were fragmentable. Please explain what you mean by ext2 and ext3 file systems.

[Seth]

Recently there was a thread disputing the performance benefits of defragging your hard drives. I personally do not share this point of view since defragmentation can reduce the number of reads and writes to a hard drive. This has got to improve performance.

In theory, yes. In practice, the performance increase is so slight that it's not even noticeable. Furthermore, there are many other ways to increase system performance that have significant results. Clicky (http://www.techbuilder.org/recipes/59201471).

As I've said before, defragging is important for less wear and tear on the drive, and data recovery. I wish I took a screen shot of an HP system that I had in my shop a couple of days ago. The drive was horrifically fragmented. The "analyze" screen was completely red except for five or six thin blue lines. I defragged and there was no noticeable difference in performance...not that I was expecting any.

[mommalina]

In theory, yes. In practice, the performance increase is so slight that it's not even noticeable. Furthermore, there are many other ways to increase system performance that have significant results. Clicky (http://www.techbuilder.org/recipes/59201471).


Seth, thanks for the web site. However, I was going to practice benign neglect
relative to defragging my computer, until I read this:

Still, defragmenting remains an important task. Why? For one, power consumption and heat can be directly related to a fragmented hard drive. When the computer's operating system requests data, if a file is not contiguous, then extra seeking on the disk may be required. But a more important consideration is disk failure. Should a hard drive fail, the likelihood of successfully recovering data from the dead or damaged drive improves significantly if the data is contiguous rather than randomly scattered about the drive platters.

I'll continue to check monthly to see how fragmented my hard drive is.
Again, thanks for the url .. :)

Lina

[Tortanick]

Tortanick,

Your comment is intriguing. I thought that all files were fragmentable. Please explain what you mean by ext2 and ext3 file systems.

ext2, and its upgrade ext3 are diffrent filesystems to the traditional windows ones, FAT32 and NTFS. Its a well known fact that they don't need defragmenting, but its hard to find a guide as to why. I did find this though

http://dataexpedition.com/~sbnoble/Tips/filesystems.html

[Freehold Fred]

I'm with you Lina.

Seth, thanks for the web site. However, I was going to practice benign neglect
relative to defragging my computer, until I read this:

Still, defragmenting remains an important task. Why? For one, power consumption and heat can be directly related to a fragmented hard drive. When the computer's operating system requests data, if a file is not contiguous, then extra seeking on the disk may be required. But a more important consideration is disk failure. Should a hard drive fail, the likelihood of successfully recovering data from the dead or damaged drive improves significantly if the data is contiguous rather than randomly scattered about the drive platters.

I'll continue to check monthly to see how fragmented my hard drive is.
Again, thanks for the url .. :)

Lina

[Seth]

Seth, thanks for the web site. However, I was going to practice benign neglect
relative to defragging my computer, until I read this:



I'll continue to check monthly to see how fragmented my hard drive is.
Again, thanks for the url .. :)

Lina

You're welcome.

Keep in mind that I never said that defragging wasn't important, it's just not going to make your computer faster. The "less wear and tear" I mentioned, is due to the drive not having to work as hard when reading files. This of course will allow it to run cooler.

I'm surprised no one here has mentioned disabling the Indexing Service.

[mylanta]

Just to add my slant, I have heard this argument for years, form some very respectable people, but I for one always run an auto defragging program in the background, and have always felt the immediate improvement from defragging any drive.

[Guest117]

Please explain what you mean by ext2 and ext3 file systems.
The ext2 or second extended filesystem is a file system for the Linux kernel.
The ext3 or third extended filesystem is a journalled file system that is commonly used by the Linux operating system.:cool:

[June]

Seth, are you willing to spend a little time educating? What is the Indexing Service and why/how can it be disabled?

[Guest117]

June, this may help:
Using Indexing Service (https://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/snap_idx_srv_mgmt.mspx?mfr=true)
Improve Performance By Disabling Indexing Service (http://www.helpwithwindows.com/windowsxp/tune-18.html):cool:

[Seth]

Thanks Nick.

I didn't even see June's post until you posted. Sometimes, I'll click on "New Posts", but the board misses the occasional one.

[compusimple]

seems to me you have to also consider the wear & tear on the drive while it defrags?

Elliott

[jflan]

seems to me you have to also consider the wear & tear on the drive while it defrags?

Elliott

Yes, I have heard that, too. Supposedly too much of this good thing can be damaging.
I always defrag manually and use the Analyze function to make the call on whether or not it's needed.

After running a Smart Placement defrag with PerfectDisk I almost always notice "peppier" performance afterwards.
Never did like Diskeeper as well.

[Guest117]

While it was true that defragmenting helped older PCs, it no longer applies. Today we have 7200-RPM hard-disk drives with improved seek and latency times. Many also contain an 8-MB cache buffer. And Windows XP has an ultra-efficient NTFS (NT File System). For PCs, servers, and workstations equipped with these innovations, defragmenting no longer makes much improvement, if any, to system performance.

Defragmenting remains an important task. Why? For one, power consumption and heat can be directly related to a fragmented hard drive. When the computer's operating system requests data, if a file is not contiguous, then extra seeking on the disk may be required.

So, not system performance but drive wellness in doing defrags.
Like a car, drives are worn more at startup rather than constant accessing (driving).

But I'm sure this debate will continue. Isn't it fun?:boxing: :)