Frequent need to defrag

  • Thread starter Thread starter Matt and Daria Roesch
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Matt and Daria Roesch

Hello all,
Just recently purchased a new machine with XP and a 60 GB HD. I am running
diskkeeper lite and when I analyze at the end of the day, it tells me that
the drive is either moderately fragmented or heavily fragmented. Is this
unusual? My old machine had a 6 GB drive, so maybe this is a little
different! Is there anything I might want to do to prevent it from getting
so defragmented? Any help (or advice to just chill out) would be
appreciated.

TIA
Matt
 
It is unusual/usual depending what kind of files and how often you work with
them.
1. Try a fixed size page file (or no page file at all if you have RAM). See
how it works for you.
2. Install XP on a separate (C:) partition and the files that cause
defragmentation on another partition so that you can defrag faster only that
partition.
3. Try another defragmenter.
Michael
 
If you use your machine at all, the hard drive will get fragmented. All you
have to do is open a Word doc and close it, nothing else, and that file is
fragmented.

I see you are using Outlook Express, if you do not compact your OE folders
they really become fragmented. They get huge also, deleting items does not
make them smaller, only compacting will do that.

How to compact your OE folders
http://insideoe.tomsterdam.com/files/maintain.htm#compact

Clean Up Your OE News Folders
http://insideoe.tomsterdam.com/files/maintain.htm#cleannews

Also keep your Temporary Internet Files cleaned out.
Make sure you check: Delete all offline content
[[This removes the junk files such as downloaded files, zero byte files
created by Outlook Express and many other hidden files that reside in your
cache.]]

Safely Delete the Temporary Internet Files
http://mvps.org/winhelp2002/delcache.htm

Also make sure your Temp files are cleaned out.
Start | Run | Type: %temp% | OK

Sorry, I may have drifted.. ;-)

Why volumes become fragmented
http://www.microsoft.com/resources/...all/proddocs/en-us/defrag_why_fragmented.mspx

Best practices
http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/defrag_overview.mspx

Before Using the Disk Defragmentation Tools
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/tr...prodtechnol/winxppro/reskit/prkd_tro_oegv.asp
 
-----Original Message-----
Hello all,
Just recently purchased a new machine with XP and a 60 GB HD. I am running
diskkeeper lite and when I analyze at the end of the day, it tells me that
the drive is either moderately fragmented or heavily fragmented. Is this
unusual? My old machine had a 6 GB drive, so maybe this is a little
different! Is there anything I might want to do to prevent it from getting
so defragmented? Any help (or advice to just chill out) would be
appreciated.

TIA
Matt
Click to expand...

It appears that you're defragging on a daily basis, which
is totally unnecessary. There's a simple test: If, after
you defrag you notice no performance improvement, the
operation was unnecessary. This isn't 1990. Hard drives
are physically much smaller than they used to be, and
much faster. Frequent defragging was a good strategy in
the days of large, slow 40mb drives being used on
equally slow systems. If you feel a compulsive need to
defrag, do it once a week at most.
 
Matt

Wes has given some excellent advice. In addition keep a check on the growth
of System Restore Points -the More Options option in Disk CleanUp.

--

~~~~~~


Hope this helps.

Gerry
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Stourport, Worcs, England
Enquire, plan and execute.
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Please tell the newsgroup how any
suggested solution worked for you.

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Wesley Vogel said:
If you use your machine at all, the hard drive will get fragmented. All you
have to do is open a Word doc and close it, nothing else, and that file is
fragmented.

I see you are using Outlook Express, if you do not compact your OE folders
they really become fragmented. They get huge also, deleting items does not
make them smaller, only compacting will do that.

How to compact your OE folders
http://insideoe.tomsterdam.com/files/maintain.htm#compact

Clean Up Your OE News Folders
http://insideoe.tomsterdam.com/files/maintain.htm#cleannews

Also keep your Temporary Internet Files cleaned out.
Make sure you check: Delete all offline content
[[This removes the junk files such as downloaded files, zero byte files
created by Outlook Express and many other hidden files that reside in your
cache.]]

Safely Delete the Temporary Internet Files
http://mvps.org/winhelp2002/delcache.htm

Also make sure your Temp files are cleaned out.
Start | Run | Type: %temp% | OK

Sorry, I may have drifted.. ;-)

Why volumes become fragmented
http://www.microsoft.com/resources/...all/proddocs/en-us/defrag_why_fragmented.mspx

Best practices
http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/defrag_overview.mspx

Before Using the Disk Defragmentation Tools
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/tr...prodtechnol/winxppro/reskit/prkd_tro_oegv.asp

--
Hope this helps. Let us know.
Wes

In
Matt and Daria Roesch said:
Hello all,
Just recently purchased a new machine with XP and a 60 GB HD. I am
running diskkeeper lite and when I analyze at the end of the day, it
tells me that the drive is either moderately fragmented or heavily
fragmented. Is this unusual? My old machine had a 6 GB drive, so
maybe this is a little different! Is there anything I might want to
do to prevent it from getting so defragmented? Any help (or advice
to just chill out) would be appreciated.

TIA
Matt
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
What happens if you use Microsoft's Defrag? Do you get the
same results? If so, unless you are a VERY heavy user, it's
worth finding out what's going on. If not, then I'd wonder
about the settings of the defragger you are using; perhaps
it's too ambitious.

Pop
 
Sounds like your diskkeeper is malfunctioning.

Since you defrag a log perhaps you can tell me how to defrag a removable
drive (CD-R-W disks) using XP. I'm new with XP and have been frustrated to
date in trying to defrag anything other than the HD.
 
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