de-frag or no?

[Loose rivets]

I'm on the first machine I own running XP. I understand that I don't have to de-frag as much as 98-2, but any comments on how frequently I should give it a sorting?

[PPRuNe Pop]

Oh yes! I personally reccomend it although if you check around on the net you will also get a more for than against.

I de-frag every two weeks, it keeps the files where they should be and it keeps the speed up.

XP's own de-frag is good but I long ago bought a pro job which I am pleased with.

PPP

[Newforest]

I have had my XP laptop for over a year and try and de-frag every month. So far, the program has told me it is not necessary. Guess it depends how much info. you have stored.

[hobie]

how frequently I should give it a sorting?

Do a Google on .... how often should you defrag .....

Looks like I should really be doing it more often than I am right now .... :rolleyes:

[spannersatcx]

It's not going to hurt if you do it even when 'it' says it doesn't need it. I think it's better to get in the habit of once a month doing a cleanup/defrag.:)

[Mac the Knife]

Microsoft says that the NTFS filesystem (which you're probably using) doesn't fragment as much as FAT32 and that fragmentation has less of an effect on performance.

I really haven't found this to be true, though with today's fast machines and hard drives you don't notice it so readily.

I defrag every 3-4 weeks and would suggest you do too.

[ExSimGuy]

I'd go along with the above - de-fragging doesn't cost much. Set it going when you turn in at night.

But don't overdo it - having the heads thrashing about every night probably won't do too much for your hard drive! Once a month seems about right if you frequently load and delete large files

[MyData]

Once a week for me. You can set it up in the schedule service:

Start -> Control Panel -> Scheduled Tasks

Add Scheduled Task and look for defrag.exe


Or add the task directly from the cmd line (using the AT command)

Point to a .cmd file which contains something along the lines of:

defrag c: -v > c:\defragc.txt
defrag d: -v > c:\defragd.txt
defrag f: -v > c:\defragf.txt

(the grimacing face should be COLON BACKSLASH)

I let this run for my discs c, d, and f at say 2am and you wil a regularly defragged disc, and the txt files let you see how things have progressed.

[hobie]

I've just realized I've never run a defrag on my new XP machine (about 2 months old now) .... :rolleyes:

Must say it's a heck of a lot faster than my old P3 win98 setup .... nice new graphics ........... even does an analysis B/4 to see if a defrag is really needed ...... :)

very nice .... :p

[Loose rivets]

Thanks, will give it its first go tonight...erm, after a year. Well, time flies when you're in your dotage.:hmm: