Defrag Question

[Nathan Sokalski]

When I run Defrag, there is a huge gap between most of the stuff which is on
the left (the beginning) and a little amount which is slightly to the right
of the middle (see screenshot). Because this gap is always there, even after
I perform the defragmentation, I am assuming that the files that make up the
little bit on the right rarely get modified (although I can't be sure
because I don't know which files they are). I would like to have them in the
same area as all the others, because with such a huge gap my hard drive
could probably gain something from not needing to make that big jump for
such a small amount of data. Is there some way I can "trick" defrag into
moving these files, or some way I can find out which files they are without
any extra software? Thanks.

 

[Pennywise]

|>When I run Defrag, there is a huge gap between most of the stuff which is on
|>the left (the beginning) and a little amount which is slightly to the right
|>of the middle (see screenshot). Because this gap is always there, even after
|>I perform the defragmentation, I am assuming that the files that make up the
|>little bit on the right rarely get modified (although I can't be sure
|>because I don't know which files they are). I would like to have them in the
|>same area as all the others, because with such a huge gap my hard drive
|>could probably gain something from not needing to make that big jump for
|>such a small amount of data. Is there some way I can "trick" defrag into
|>moving these files, or some way I can find out which files they are without
|>any extra software? Thanks.

Read only files can't be moved.

A trick I use is to run attrib on a partition before I run a defrag
program.

In a dos/command window I type in:
CD \ <to get to the root of the drive>
attrib -R /S

You will see a lot of errors fly by:
Not resetting hidden file - E:\pagefile.sys

Don't worry about it as You can't remove the Read only bit from system
or hidden files this way.

 

[Carey Frisch [MVP]]

Why doesn't Diskeeper result in a fragmentation display showing all
the files in one place and all the spaces consolidation into another place?
http://www.execsoft.co.uk/html/home/dk_faqs.htm#a_08

Disk Defragmenter Utility
http://www.theeldergeek.com/disk_defragmenter_utility.htm

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows XP - Shell/User
Microsoft Newsgroups

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

:

| When I run Defrag, there is a huge gap between most of the stuff which is on
| the left (the beginning) and a little amount which is slightly to the right
| of the middle (see screenshot). Because this gap is always there, even after
| I perform the defragmentation, I am assuming that the files that make up the
| little bit on the right rarely get modified (although I can't be sure
| because I don't know which files they are). I would like to have them in the
| same area as all the others, because with such a huge gap my hard drive
| could probably gain something from not needing to make that big jump for
| such a small amount of data. Is there some way I can "trick" defrag into
| moving these files, or some way I can find out which files they are without
| any extra software? Thanks.
|
| --
| Nathan Sokalski

 

[Ted Zieglar]

You are worrying about nothing. The "huge gap" has no significance.

 

[Nathan Sokalski]

You appear to have missed the last part of my message. I wanted to solve
this problem WITHOUT any extra software.

 

[Nathan Sokalski]

I will admit to not being an expert on how files are organized on a hard
disk, but I always though that the huge gap meant that the disk would
require more rotations to find that data. I was once told by a professor of
mine that people have written viruses that "rearrange" the files on your
hard drive causing it to require so many rotations so frequently that it
would wear it out (not that that was my concern here). And if it has "no
significance" what is the purpose of defragmenting anyway?

 

[Carey Frisch [MVP]]

Perform a "Disk Cleanup" and make sure to delete
all but the current System Restore point. Then reboot
and defrag three (3) times while in "Safe Mode".

Open My Computer, right-click on your hard drive and select:
Properties > Disk Cleanup > More Options > System Restore Clean Up

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows XP - Shell/User
Microsoft Newsgroups

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

:

| You appear to have missed the last part of my message. I wanted to solve
| this problem WITHOUT any extra software.
| --
| Nathan Sokalski

 

[R. McCarty]

It's not the rotations of the disk, so much as the head movements.
However the faster the platters spin does reduce overall access
times.

In the case you describe - the closer to the outer edge of the disk
(Platter) the faster the heads can access data. The further into a
disk or partition on a disk, the longer the head access time increases.
**This is a simplistic description, since many drives contain a
multiple of platters & heads.
You can see for yourself the timing variances by downloading &
running DiskSpeed32 on a disk. As cylinder #'s increase the
average speed will decrease.
DiskSpeed32: http://www.geocities.com/vgrinenko/DiskSpeed32/

The gap simply means an area of blank space. Most 3rd-party
defragmenter programs will move all data to the outermost area
of the drive/partition.

By design the MFT will be located at approximately 20% into an
NTFS 5.1 partition.

Defragmentation - consolidate single files into a contiguous sequence
of clusters. This results in a single head pivoting motion to read or
write the file.

 

[Pennywise]

|>I will admit to not being an expert on how files are organized on a hard
|>disk, but I always though that the huge gap meant that the disk would
|>require more rotations to find that data. I was once told by a professor of
|>mine that people have written viruses that "rearrange" the files on your
|>hard drive causing it to require so many rotations so frequently that it
|>would wear it out (not that that was my concern here). And if it has "no
|>significance" what is the purpose of defragmenting anyway?

What your talking about is called interleave
http://www.isprank.com/Glossary/Interleave.html
and a function of a low level format - it's not going to change.

 

[MAP]

You appear to have missed the last part of my message. I wanted to
solve this problem WITHOUT any extra software.

Your funny! Thanks for the laugh!