Defrag

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I've just defragged a partition. This time I paid close attention and
I see that some files are stranded in the outer reaches of the
partition.

In the old DOS days utilities like PCTools defragged but brought all
the files to one end of the disk leaving the maximum unused space in
one slab. Is there anythin in XP that does this?

Colin
 
i think what you
are remembering is
the method of defragging
the free space.

back then the harddrives
were small, slow and used the
fat file system. so having
all the data clumped together
was beneficial.

however, these days i don't
really think that defragging free
space makes any difference
for improving the performance
of your system, especially if it
is ntfs and because harddrives
are engineered to be incredibly faster
and more proficient because the
cache.

so i don't think that
winxp's regular defrag
uses this method.

however, there are
third party defraggers
that provide enhanced
options, like defragging
free space.

--

db ·´¯`·.¸. said:
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Click to expand...


..
 
This brings up a serious concern of mine in using OneCare. It performs
defrag every time Protection Plus scan runs. I have read that with XP and XP
Pro defrag should not be performed if the computer is using only a small
amount of its resources.
 
i am not sure if defragmenting
should be a concern.

it is possible to schedule
a daily defrag. however, this
may not be convenient for
everyone but would not hurt as
well.

one defrag program that
i recommend whenever
possible is pagedfrg from
microsoft. having this
scheduled at each cold boot
is convenient, especially
if hibernation is used
on a regular basis.

using this plus any other
little utilities for the purposes
of keeping your system nice
and tidy, will make computing
a more proficient experience.

and if our windows is happy
then so are we...
--

db ·´¯`·.¸. said:
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..
 
i suppose another consideration
about the free space is that most
if not all, contains files that
were deleted from the recycle
bin. And as most of us know, these
files can usually be restored.

so keeping this in mind,
combining used space into
a single clunk, would overwrite
some of those recoverable files.

for me, i use a specialized disk
wiping utility to clear out my
free space every couple of months or so.

however this is what i prefer to do
on my machines and my free space
is actually "free space".

--

db ·´¯`·.¸. said:
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Click to expand...


..
 
i suppose another consideration
about the free space is that most
if not all, contains files that
were deleted from the recycle
bin. And as most of us know, these
files can usually be restored.
Click to expand...

If a file is in the recycle bin, then the space it's occupying is not
marked as free space.
 
I've just defragged a partition. This time I paid close attention and
I see that some files are stranded in the outer reaches of the
partition.
Click to expand...

The builtin Windows defragmenter just defragments files. If you want to
consolidate your free space, or move all your files to one end of their
partition then you need a third-party defragmenter.

I installed one on a 30-day free trial but didn't notice any significant
improvements, so didn't purchase.

If you've got partitions on your drives then you need a an extra
facility - to be able to defrag your first partition so that your files
are at the top, and thus closer to the stuff in your second partition.
If you have more than two partitions on a disk it gets harder to do the
right thing. There are applications that can cope though.
 
yes, this is absolutely
correct.

the supposition i made
was for those files after
the recycle bin is "emptied"

--

db ·´¯`·.¸. said:
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Click to expand...


..
 
yes, this is absolutely
correct.

the supposition i made
was for those files after
the recycle bin is "emptied"
Click to expand...

If the recycle bin has been emptied, then the files are simply
deleted.

A defrag operation is no more likely to overwrite the space
previously occupied by a deleted file than would be any other
operation that allocates disk space.

I suppose that a defrag will likely overwrite more of the space at
one time, but free space is free space, and once you start using the
machine for anything, there's no reasonable expectation that any of
those files can be recovered.
 
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