defrag on windows

thebaz

Does anyone believe running defragmentor on windows regularly does any good ? is it worth the effort ? when i run it , i notice no improvement.

ChityWest

I think its good practice to do it every once in a while. Particularly say if you just uninstalled or removed a few GB worth of files - to then run a defrag so that the next install will go to contigious space as opposed to being spread all over the shop. I think its better to keep one program partition where the files dont get moved around too much - everything else on the next partition where files being fragmented wont have too much effect (mp3's - photos etc).

This can make a big difference - but if you mean just normally running it when nothing major has been moved - I dont usually see much difference. I could be imagining it but I always remember a more noticable boost running defrag on the likes of 95.

Karoma

Which version of Windows?
What filesystem?
How often is "regularly"?

thebaz

defrag on both windows 2000 and windows xp
FAT32
defrag every 3 or 4 months - but as i say no improvement is noticed.

Karoma

mmm. Possibly because you haven't reached a stage where it's badly needed.
Or check the report at the end of the defrag - see what it didn't defrag.
Try defrag'ing in Safe Mode.
TBH, invest in a 3rd party defrag tool like diskeeper.

thebaz

Thanks Karoma - what your saying then is, it should boost performance after being defragged (i.e. it does what it states , and not just a gimmick ) ?:D

Karoma

It's not so much about 'boost'ing performance as regaining performance levels...

For a better understanding,have a quick read of the (not-so-fantastic) introduction to fragmentation. And, that Windows and 3rd party defrag. tools attempt undo the process (Kinda). The reason that I suggest diskeeper or using Windows defrag. in safe mode = if you're defrag'ing in normal mode - some of the files may be in use, and will not be touched to avoid harming the system/files.

kaimera

And don't use diskkeeper on fat32 unless you have a few days to wait for a defrag.

Capt'n Midnight

also look at pagedfrg from www.sysinternals.com
it defrags files that windows can't, and it's free.

If you notice your computer "disk trashing" - using the disk a lot then perhaps consider more RAM or put your swap file on a different if you have one

if you feel your computer has gotten slower over time then it's worth doing a spyware check too.