Defrag Question for the pros.

  • Thread starter Thread starter §kullywag©-
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§kullywag©-

I don't have any problem to solve, but am curious about XP's Defag.
Why does XP's defrag NEED 15% of a partition to defrag? I could
understand needing a gig or so......... but on an 80 gig partition,
why on earth would windows REQUIRE more than 10 gigs???

When recently defragging all my partitions, I came across the the
message that windows could not defragment my 80G partition (partition
for storage) PROPERLY because although I had 15% free, only 11% was
usable??? What can be going on in the back to make that much
difference?
This partition is used ONLY for storage, and has no programs installed
to it. Temporarily moving another gig to a different partition allowed
windows to defrag it. But again, WHY? I can understand needing 15%
on a smaller partition, but on an 80G one?

What on earth can windows possibly do during a defrag that it need
roughly 5x the installed OS size to do? System Restore is, and
allways has been disabled on this computer.

I can Image the same partion, or copy a 10G DVD to the drive, or
install 40 games in less space than windows NEEDS to defrag it?


Is this msg just a "glitch" that needs to be ignored?


§kullywag©-
 
I don't have any problem to solve, but am curious about XP's Defag.
Why does XP's defrag NEED 15% of a partition to defrag? I could
understand needing a gig or so......... but on an 80 gig partition,
why on earth would windows REQUIRE more than 10 gigs???

When recently defragging all my partitions, I came across the the
message that windows could not defragment my 80G partition (partition
for storage) PROPERLY because although I had 15% free, only 11% was
usable??? What can be going on in the back to make that much
difference?
This partition is used ONLY for storage, and has no programs installed
to it. Temporarily moving another gig to a different partition allowed
windows to defrag it. But again, WHY? I can understand needing 15%
on a smaller partition, but on an 80G one?

What on earth can windows possibly do during a defrag that it need
roughly 5x the installed OS size to do? System Restore is, and
allways has been disabled on this computer.

I can Image the same partion, or copy a 10G DVD to the drive, or
install 40 games in less space than windows NEEDS to defrag it?


Is this msg just a "glitch" that needs to be ignored?


§kullywag©-
Click to expand...

No idea what the programmers were thinking. That's just how it works. ;)

Personally, I use Perfect Disk by Raxco. One, it doesn't have that 15% free
space requirement. And two, it can perform a defrag at boot time. It has
other features that are not in the WinXP tool as well: www.raxco.com
 
It's all about how smart/good your defrag algorithm is. All defragmenters
use the same mechanism to "move" files around - Microsoft's defrag APIs.
The "move" granularity in Windows XP is 1 cluster. In addition,
defragmenters can use the free space inside of the MFT Reserved Zone (under
NT4 and Win2k defragmenters couldn't). With Windows XP, there really isn't
a good technical reason why a defragmenter should require 15% free space -
some just do because they aren't smart enough :)

- Greg/Raxco Software
Microsoft MVP - Windows File System

Disclaimer: I work for Raxco Software, the maker of PerfectDisk - a
commercial defrag utility, as a systems engineer in the support department.
 
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