Defragging

[Guest]

With Win XP Pro, FAT32; I defragged without any noticeable improvement.
So:[1] Is there a rule of thumb about when to defrag ? The defrag report
figures are confusing: They appear to say that there are still 86 files -
out of a total of 41,471 - which did not defrag. Somehow, this appears to
equal 4% by volume of files not defragged. So [2] considering that I see no
appreciable improvement in performance speed, is there a problem with having
some files not defragged ? Can a TOTAL defrag be achieved ? Many
thanx for any help in making me understand.

 

[Jim]

"I agree that you have to be careful abou"

With Win XP Pro, FAT32; I defragged without any noticeable improvement.
So:[1] Is there a rule of thumb about when to defrag ?

I only defrag when the defragmenter program tells me to. Fragmentation is
really
only important on files which are regularly accessed from start to finish.
Consolidating
these files make a lot of difference.

The defrag report
figures are confusing: They appear to say that there are still 86
iles -
out of a total of 41,471 - which did not defrag. Somehow, this appears to
equal 4% by volume of files not defragged. So [2] considering that I see
no
appreciable improvement in performance speed, is there a problem with
having
some files not defragged ? Can a TOTAL defrag be achieved ? Many
thanx for any help in making me understand.

No problem that I can see. A total defrag cannot be achieved because some
files
are open. Such files cannot be defragmented.

Jim

 

[Newbie Coder]

Why on earth are you using FAT32 on XP?

--
Newbie Coder
(It's just a name)

"I agree that you have to be careful abou"

With Win XP Pro, FAT32; I defragged without any noticeable improvement.
So:[1] Is there a rule of thumb about when to defrag ?

I only defrag when the defragmenter program tells me to. Fragmentation is
really
only important on files which are regularly accessed from start to finish.
Consolidating
these files make a lot of difference.

The defrag report
figures are confusing: They appear to say that there are still 86
iles -
out of a total of 41,471 - which did not defrag. Somehow, this appears to
equal 4% by volume of files not defragged. So [2] considering that I see
no
appreciable improvement in performance speed, is there a problem with
having
some files not defragged ? Can a TOTAL defrag be achieved ? Many
thanx for any help in making me understand.

No problem that I can see. A total defrag cannot be achieved because some
files
are open. Such files cannot be defragmented.

Jim

 

[AJR]

Any performance via defrag is provided by a "side" function - in
defragmentation the "most used" applications are moved to the "beginning"
sectors. Applications should be more responsive - also as the HD approaches
50 to 70% capacity response time is affected.
\
"I agree that you have to be careful abou"

 

[Malvern]

No problem that I can see. A total defrag cannot be achieved because some
files are open. Such files cannot be defragmented.

Jim

But when I do a defrag, I CLOSE everything running via Taskbar, but I get
unregimented files associated with programs I know are closed (e.g. Excel,
Power Point). Are these "programs" processes running in background ? Or
what else am I missing ?

Malv