Defragmenter Compacting Files??

[Dwight Stewart]

Defragmenter spends a lot of time at the end of the process compacting
files.

1. What does "compacting" mean? Is this like compressed (zip) files?

2. Can this slow down access to those files?

3. Is there a way to control which files are compacted or turn this off
completely?

Thanks for your assistance.


Dwight Stewart (W5NET)

http://www.qsl.net/w5net/

 

[Ron K.]

Dwight,

I've had the same question. My guess is compacting
probably means "consolidating" files into contiguous
clusters and not true compression.

Ron

 

[xyz]

The "Compacting" is an INFORMATION message that is display when the
system is scanned. Once the scan is complete, you are given the
chance to compact files or not. Nothing is compacted without your
permission, but the initial display is misleading.

xyz
================

 

[Dwight Stewart]

I've had the same question. My guess is compacting
probably means "consolidating" files into contiguous
clusters and not true compression.

I don't think that's it, Ron. The program spends several minutes moving
files around before "compacting files" appears towards the end of the
process. The moving files around would probably consolidate them into
contiguous clusters, so this "compacting files" would seem to be something
different. Of course, I don't know for sure, so you may be right.


Dwight Stewart (W5NET)

http://www.qsl.net/w5net/

 

[Dwight Stewart]

The "Compacting" is an INFORMATION message
that is display when the system is scanned. Once
the scan is complete, you are given the chance to
compact files or not. Nothing is compacted without
your permission, but the initial display is misleading.

Thanks for the information. However, if you don't mind one more question,
what is it scanning for? The only reason I'm asking all this is because this
"compacting files" takes up a considerable amount of time at the end of the
defragment process. Since I'm always looking for ways to save time, my
attention was immediately drawn to this.


Dwight Stewart (W5NET)

http://www.qsl.net/w5net/

 

[Raymond Chen]

Compacting files is just moving them around to be contiguous. But this is
done in two steps: First the old files are moved out of the way, and then
the new files are moved in compactly.

Sort of like if you wanted to rearrange the furniture in your living room.
To move the sofa to the back wall, you first have to take the chair that is
by the back wall and move it into the hallway.

"Moving the files around before compacting" is taking all the chairs that
are in the way and moving them into the hallway.

 

[Dwight Stewart]

Compacting files is just moving them around to
be contiguous. But this is done in two steps: First
the old files are moved out of the way, and then
the new files are moved in compactly.

Okay, I'll take your word for it, Raymond (and Ron K.). I guess the
terminology had me fooled. Many compression programs also "compact" files,
leading me to suspect this might be the same sort of thing.


Dwight Stewart (W5NET)

http://www.qsl.net/w5net/

 

[RobertWZ]

Compacting is compression, the ham had it right. Files are being moved to be contiguous, which is the definition of defragmentation. In the process of doing this compacting is used by the program, presumably to optimize its own use of resources.
The end result is not a compacted file, unless it already was. It seems there is less effective defragmenting of the compacted files, at least in my recent XP experience. You can look at the files with WIndows Explorer, at least in XP, and the compacted files will be blue. If you would like to save disk space you can compact files: left click on file(s) or folder to properties/advanced/ then select "compress contents to save disk space." Best applied to old or not frequently used files as there may be a slight performance cost.