Defragmenting hard disks

IF you use NTFS disc fragmentation is less of a problem than with FAT partitions. However if you frequently install and uninstall large programs, write and delete very large files on your scratch/swap disc defragmenting once or twice a year might be worthwhile.

On Tue, 20 Feb 2007 15:46:22 GMT, "bmoag" wrote:

IF you use NTFS disc fragmentation is less of a problem than with FAT partitions. However if you frequently install and uninstall large programs, write and delete very large files on your scratch/swap disc defragmenting once or twice a year might be worthwhile.

Even with NTFS (which MS once alleged did not require defragmenting) you will see noticeable improvements in performance with defragmenting. Also note that if you wait long times between defragments, it takes quite a bit longer to accomplish the process. Regular defragmenting is best.

Julie wrote:

I keep reading how it’s important to keep the scratch hard disk defragmented but I haven’t found any empirical evidence that clearly demonstrates the actual performance gains.

Has anyone come across any data that clearly proves that defragmenting genuinely improves Photoshop’s performance?

Have a look @ www.diskeeper.com and see what they say on disk fragmentation.I use their Diskeeper 2007 Pro and it does the job.

Monty

I agree defragmenting once a month of a computer that is heavily used with files and programs added deleted and so on, is a good idea. Like anything else, though, you can have too much of a good thing. Defragmenting once a week is excessive in nearly every case and in fact is detrimental to the life of the hard drive!

Diskeeper was such a good program until they had to get onto the "Programs for the Clueless" bandwagon. Version 9 was the high point for Diskeeper. They could have just updated for Vista, but they didn’t. Oh well, it still works better than Windows’ crippled version. And Diskeeper is still, as far as I know, the only defragmenter that will defragment the paging file and MFT.

Bill
"Monty" wrote in message

Julie wrote:

I keep reading how it’s important to keep the scratch hard disk defragmented but I haven’t found any empirical evidence that clearly demonstrates the actual performance gains.

Has anyone come across any data that clearly proves that defragmenting genuinely improves Photoshop’s performance?

Have a look @ www.diskeeper.com and see what they say on disk fragmentation.I use their Diskeeper 2007 Pro and it does the job.

Monty

diskeeper corp did make an upgrade for windows vista – i’ve been using it for the last couple of weeks and it’s been running great. i downloaded a trial version from http://downloads.diskeeper.com/trialware/Diskeeper2007-ProPr emier-697.exe
before i decided to purchase it

On Feb 21, 12:37 pm, "SBCDSL" wrote:

I agree defragmenting once a month of a computer that is heavily used with files and programs added deleted and so on, is a good idea. Like anything else, though, you can have too much of a good thing. Defragmenting once a week is excessive in nearly every case and in fact is detrimental to the life of the hard drive!

Diskeeperwas such a good program until they had to get onto the "Programs for the Clueless" bandwagon. Version 9 was the high point forDiskeeper. They could have just updated for Vista, but they didn’t. Oh well, it still works better than Windows’ crippled version. AndDiskeeperis still, as far as I know, the only defragmenter that will defragment the paging file and MFT.

Bill"Monty" wrote in message

Julie wrote:

I keep reading how it’s important to keep the scratch hard disk defragmented but I haven’t found any empirical evidence that clearly demonstrates the actual performance gains.

Has anyone come across any data that clearly proves that defragmenting genuinely improves Photoshop’s performance?

Have a look @www.diskeeper.comand see what they say on disk fragmentation.I use theirDiskeeper2007 Pro and it does the job.

Monty- Hide quoted text –

– Show quoted text –

SBCDSL wrote:

I agree defragmenting once a month of a computer that is heavily used with files and programs added deleted and so on, is a good idea. Like anything else, though, you can have too much of a good thing. Defragmenting once a week is excessive in nearly every case and in fact is detrimental to the life of the hard drive!

How is defragmenting detrimental to a hard disk? Where did you find that information?

On Wed, 21 Feb 2007 20:28:29 -0500, Julie wrote:

SBCDSL wrote:

I agree defragmenting once a month of a computer that is heavily used with files and programs added deleted and so on, is a good idea. Like anything else, though, you can have too much of a good thing. Defragmenting once a week is excessive in nearly every case and in fact is detrimental to the life of the hard drive!

How is defragmenting detrimental to a hard disk? Where did you find that information?

All that rubbin out will eventually wear a hole in the disks. Don’t you no nuffin? 🙂

On Wed, 21 Feb 2007 20:28:29 -0500, Julie wrote:

How is defragmenting detrimental to a hard disk? Where did you find that information?

The inference would be that the heat generated from the constant R/W cycling would be bad for the drive. I’d be more concerned about that on a laptop where drives tend to fail more often and heat is an issue. That said, the time it takes to defrag a drive that has not been done in a few months is much longer and raises the heat factor quite a bit. Whether the added temp from waiting longer in between is more of an issue than the more frequent wear at a lower temp… I don’t know – but I’d suspect that reasonably frequent (every month) is the best balance.