Defraging

[HALF A PILOT]

how often is defraging recommended?

[ZH875]

I very rarely defrag, and haven't noticed a drop in performance, I haven't lost any data either due to a defrag going wrong!!

Some recommend once a month, but you can always run defrag, and if it says all is ok, leave it until next month.

[PPRuNe Pop]

Once a week. It keeps your system files where they should be.

PPP

[robdesbois]

PPP - the system files are stored on the hard drive during installation, presumably on an empty disk, so will be at the start of the filesystem. Unless they are deleted then re-added this is where they will stay. If memory serves correctly, the blocks in which these files are stored are marked as immovable...although not sure if that's Windows-version-dependent or even correct :confused:

Regarding defragging..some say you should do it frequently, some say it's a waste of time. I've never been bothered to work out performance stat's myself though.

IMO once per month should be sufficient, unless files are created and delete d on your disk frequently (e.g. if you do video editing or download lots of stuff then transfer to another drive/storage medium,) especially if you often get close to a full disk.

[frostbite]

Pop, all once a week will do is prematurely wear out your HD! Once a month if you must/need to.

As said above, your system files are 'fixed' in the same location.

[PPRuNe Pop]

Not what the geeks say!

Try putting 'defragging' into Google for example.

Btw, I don't think HDD's need any help from us. Their longevity is questionable these days IMHO.

[planecrazy.eu]

Well for once i rely on M$ for making the decision on.

"when to defrag"

It tells you if you go to defrag.

Or there are defragers out there that just run automatically in the background when your system is at idle.

Not so sure about the HD wearing out, suppose it could do, but what are the chances of having a HD for an extended period of time, i still have my very first HD, i got it when Win 95 came out, so its over ten years old, still got all the stuff it used to have on it, still works, etc.

Since then i have had well over a handful of systems, just backup my HD with each one i get.

[robdesbois]

PPP - indeed there is a lot about defragging, this is why I used to do it near obsessively, however it may be the placebo effect -- I did do a search for actual benchmarks before and after defragmenting drives with particular usage patterns and found nothing.
It will make a difference on some level but I have yet to see proof (versus instructions on how to defrag / adverts for defrag programs) that this difference is anything but negligible.

Can anyone post links to benchmarks?

PS ZH785 -- a failed defrag operation shouldn't lose any data; the data is copied from its source to destination, then the filesystem updated to point to the new block(s) instead of the old.

[ZH875]

I agree that a failed defrag shouldn't lose data, but I have been bitten in the past by Micro$oft defrag, so am loathe to defrag if not required.

Previous cases have resulted in cross-linked files when power glitches happened during the operation.

[Loose rivets]

I have always assumed that the defrag programe was developed by Peter Norton and then enveloped by MS. Is this correct?

[Oceanz]

The M$ defrag is a cut down version of Executive Software's Diskeeper. It isn't all that good but better than nothing - though the full version of Diskeeper is good for workstation (desktop) use. I defrag around every 5-7 days and it DOES make a difference, mainly with our larger pro audio & video files (gigs each). M$ used a version of Norton back in the DOS 5/6 days

Wearing out the HDD is a furphy - any decent webserver is continually running defrag in the background otherwise the server would very quickly grind to snail's pace.

Oceanz

[robdesbois]

Errm...why would a webserver be defragmenting?? It has no need for low-level filesystem access such as that required for defragmenting, and the majority of webserver setups don't continually create and delete files. Are you thinking of RAM defragmenting here?
:confused:

[Oceanz]

Defragmentation is of all files, not just low level system files.
Files are continually being created/deleted on a webserver, lots of temporary files, clients adding deleting files - one server alone might be servicing a few hundred websites, with their owners changing files - or even writing entries on the PPRuNe forums :E.

I used this as an example of an instance where the HDD's are basically in constant use - these days the drives used are the same as the people use in their own home computers.

Oceanz.

[robdesbois]

Oceanz, you misunderstand -- by low-level I mean low-level access to the filesystem, in other words instead of accessing it purely as files as most applications do, accessing it as blocks in the FS.

As I said it depends on your usage patterns as to whether a web-serving machine would require defragmenting -- a forum not using file uploads is unlikely to use temporary files, the *database server* OTOH may well perform this sort of operation.

Can you point to a specific web-server which defragments the filesystem during running?

[Lancelot37]

Try this. It's FREE for 30 days. Then decide. I use it

http://www.diskeeper.com/defrag.asp

[matelot]

@ half a pilot - all the replies have assumed you're on Windows. If you are then a good defragger far better than Windows' own is dirms-s and buzzsaw. Google them. Both free and you'll see why they're better when you read the spec.

Of course, if you're on Linux, then you don't need to defrag (or run av, or anti-spyware, or... :rolleyes: )

:)

[Tarq57]

http://www.auslogics.com/disk-defrag/
This one is free, thorough, and very fast.