Why doesn't video file get laid down starting at the end of the lastfile on a defragged drive?

[Doc]

After defragging a drive with PerfectDisk8, using the aggressive
setting, I captured a lengthy DV video file. However, after analyzing
the disk, the file shows to have been laid down in several chunks
instead of one contiguous chunk. Why is that?

Thanks for all input.

 

[nappy]

After defragging a drive with PerfectDisk8, using the aggressive
setting, I captured a lengthy DV video file. However, after analyzing
the disk, the file shows to have been laid down in several chunks
instead of one contiguous chunk. Why is that?

That's normal.

If you want it to be contigious defrag it again after your capture.

However, there should be no need to do this. Can you explain what you are
trying to fix?

 

[smlunatick]

After defragging a drive with PerfectDisk8, using the aggressive
setting, I captured a lengthy DV video file. However, after analyzing
the disk, the file shows to have been laid down in several chunks
instead of one contiguous chunk. Why is that?

Thanks for all input.

This has always been the method that Microsoft recorded the files onto
hard drives (since the DOS era.)

 

[Doc]

That's normal.

If you want it to be contigious defrag it again after your capture.

However, there should be no need to do this. Can you explain what you are
trying to fix?

Not trying to "fix" it as such, just trying to gain understanding.

 

[Martin Heffels]

After defragging a drive with PerfectDisk8, using the aggressive
setting, I captured a lengthy DV video file. However, after analyzing
the disk, the file shows to have been laid down in several chunks
instead of one contiguous chunk. Why is that?

There may be areas which are locked, and which you might not see on the
cluster-view (if Perfectdisk has such a view), then when capturing, it
jumps over the locked areas, and creates a new part. Quite normal, and not
that much to worry about. If files are fragmented in multitudes, and those
areas are all over the disk, you have to get worried ;-)

cheers

-martin-

 

[Richard Crowley]

"Doc" wrote ...

After defragging a drive with PerfectDisk8, using the aggressive
setting, I captured a lengthy DV video file. However, after analyzing
the disk, the file shows to have been laid down in several chunks
instead of one contiguous chunk. Why is that?

Because operating systems like MSwin use a compromise,
"all-purpose", generic algorithm for determining where to put
files, both beginning allocations, and subsequent extents. This
algorithm is clearly not optimized for allocation of large,
contiguous files (like video and audio files). There are a great
many reasons for this, most of which are beyond the scope of
a newsgroup discussion such as this.

This algorithm may be published and/or discussed somewhere,
but, like the weather, we can talk about it all we like, but there
isn't much we can DO about it.

Perhaps it would be more fruitful for you to explain why you
are asking. Is there some issue you are trying to resolve?

 

[Joe]

One would presume that editing work with a video file broken into pieces may
be less than optimum.

Joe

 

[nappy]

One would presume that editing work with a video file broken into pieces
may be less than optimum.

Joe

Perhaps. But if optimum means the file can be accessed at the required speed
with the required throughput then it is a nonissue because it fulfills the
requirements.