Defragger fails to "squish" like the old days?

  • Thread starter Thread starter ***** charles
  • Start date Start date
C

***** charles

Hi all,

Why is it that the XP defragger fails to move "all" of
the files as close to track zero as possible like the
defragger in 98? Am I just not telling it to run enough
times?

thanks,
charles.....
 
Hi,

The objective of a defragger is not always to move files to one section of
the drive. The general desire is to put the various pieces of a file close
together, but also leave room for expansion when a file is in use or is
altered so that the additional pieces can be aligned closely with the
original file. Plus, pushing them all together toward track 0 may look
pretty, but it isn't the best move logically. Any file that would need to
expand would then have to grab new space beyond that which is compacted
together, so if the pagefile suddenly blossoms from 100MB to 500MB, the
drive head will be jumping all over the place - certainly something that is
not going to increase performance.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
 
Hey,

If the drive is an 80G and all the files only take up about 3G and
one wants to repartition from just one logical drive to 2 partitions
and there are files "hanging around" at the end of the drive, it makes
it much more scary to use something like Partition Magic to shrink
the C drive and create a new D drive.

later....
 
Any partition work of that nature is inherently dangerous regardless of
where on the drive the files are. If the program works correctly, the files
will be moved prior to the resizing, but that doesn't excuse not making
proper backups. If the program does not perform correctly, it may not matter
where the files were located, as it may trash the entire volume. It does
happen, and often enough that creating a proper backup is a critical first
step to performing any partition manipulation.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
 
Well said. Partition manipulation is scary no matter where the files are
located. Anyone who uses these types of programs without a backup is playing
with fire. Disk imaging programs and large USB hard drives have almost
eliminated the need for programs to manipulate partitions. I rarely use them
any more. Image the partitions, re-partition it as you want, and restore the
images.
 
Sat, 22 Apr 2006 07:10:06 -0400 from Rick "Nutcase" Rogers
Any partition work of that nature is inherently dangerous regardless of
where on the drive the files are. If the program works correctly, the files
will be moved prior to the resizing, but that doesn't excuse not making
proper backups. If the program does not perform correctly, it may not matter
where the files were located, as it may trash the entire volume. It does
happen, and often enough that creating a proper backup is a critical first
step to performing any partition manipulation.
Click to expand...

<aol>
Well said!
</aol>
 
Charles,

Why? Because the built-in defragmenter it isn't designed to - since there
are files that the built-in defragmenter won't touch.

- 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.

Want to email me? Delete ntloader.
 
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