Disk Defragmenter

What is it and what will happen if I do use it? Should I Disk Defragmenter since I never done it before and might speed up my computer?

Jam it back in, in the dark.

It is a type of program with which you can defragment partitions on your harddrive(s). But that's pretty obvious, eh

Simply put, data on your partitions will (inevitably) become fragmented (the speed of which is decided by how much you use your computer, basicly). This is a bad thing and can lead to data loss among other nasty things. So you defragment. However you don't use (asuming you use Windows) Windows' defragment program (as it sucks). You use either O&O or Diskkeeper.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Disk defragmenting is a good thing.

Sometimes when you save files on your hard drive, it gets saved in bits and pieces scattered around the drrive, as opposed to one solid block of data.
What these sorts of programs do is reorganize this data so that you have a lot less pieces, and thus have more blocks of data next to each other. Mostly, it saves the hard drive in seeking time.

There is the very rare situation where your disc defragmenting program will lose some data, or make some terrible error; but the odds of this happening are so slim as to be practically nonexistent. And the odds of data loss because of a fragmented hard drive far outweigh this possibility.

Anyways, I would suggest that you not use Microsoft's standard defragmenting program. Not exactly because it is a poor program, but because there are a multitude of other, far better programs out there. I personally favour Raxco's PerfectDisk, which I can upload to megaupload or rapidshare if you want. PD has a couple of very handy defrag options which can speed up your computer beyond that which MS's can do.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Whenever your computer writes a new file to the hard disc, the area on the disc to which the file is written is decided by a placement policy. This basically tries to figure out the best place to put the file. For example, the OS may decide that to make things quick, it'll chuck the file into the first piece of free space on your drive that is large enough to hold it; that's called "first fit". Alternatively, it might look for an empty space that most closely matches the size of the file you're writing to the disc. That policy is called "best fit". There are a few different methods.

A problem inevitably arises when your drive begins to fill up to the point where there are not many free areas large enough to hold a whole file. In this case, the OS "fragments" the file (which basically means it chops it up into as many pieces as necessary to make all the data fit into whichever gaps are left). If you have large files like a DVD rip, the ideal way for it to be stored would be as one big piece, so that the heads in the hard disc that read data don't have to move around. In reality though, you're unlikely to have an area of free space on your disc large enough to hold a huge data file as one chunk. As a result, the heads in the hard disc that read data will have to move to many different locations on the disc surface to read all parts of the file (this is called seeking). The more often the heads have to move, the more time is wasted seeking information rather than reading it. This slows overall system performance and in extreme cases you might experience video playback that skips.

The defragmenter utilities available in Windows and as third-party software all basically try to collect the fragments of files and rearrange them on your hard disc in order to improve overall performance and minimise the amount of seeking required to access files. This usually involves trying to bunch the pieces back together in some way, and moving files to locations on the disc that are more quickly accessible (near the outer edges of the drive surfaces). Sorry about the long explanation.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Originally Posted by packrat

Anyways, I would suggest that you not use Microsoft's standard defragmenting program. Not exactly because it is a poor program, but because there are a multitude of other, far better programs out there. I personally favour Raxco's PerfectDisk, which I can upload to megaupload or rapidshare if you want. PD has a couple of very handy defrag options which can speed up your computer beyond that which MS's can do.

Could you please? Or is there any free defragment programs?

And thanks everyone for explaing, I thought I might as well learn this since I want to learn to clean my own computer up rather then spending $300 at Best Buy for someone else to do it lol. I remember when I first got my computer three years ago I had them install stuff I could have for $50. Sigh

I was speaking idiomatically.

Originally Posted by RPG Maker

Could you please? Or is there any free defragment programs?

And thanks everyone for explaing, I thought I might as well learn this since I want to learn to clean my own computer up rather then spending $300 at Best Buy for someone else to do it lol. I remember when I first got my computer three years ago I had them install stuff I could have for $50. Sigh

I could upload you a copy of Diskeeper 10 Server Enterprise, which (if you have WinXP Pro) is easily the best Diskeeper edition available (and no cracks or serials are needed!).

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

I use WIndows XP Home =/

FELIPE NO

Not too sure about the Server Enterprise version but I know all the other versions of diskeeper I've used works on any version of win2k/XP.

Originally Posted by Kaiten

I could upload you a copy of Diskeeper 10 Server Enterprise, which (if you have WinXP Pro) is easily the best Diskeeper edition available (and no cracks or serials are needed!).

Hey Kaiten, is that version any different from Diskeeper 10 Professional Premium? Which is what I'm using.
If there are some substantial advantages to using it I'll gladly take a copy too, if you don't mind!

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Well, for all who are potentially interested, here is PerfectDisk 7.0.2.6.3.6.7.3.2.4.7.67.3.43ABF.2 or whatever the rest of the numbers are.

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=OS3L4SLK

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Annnnd to anyone that wants my version of Diskeeper 10 pro (premier) its over here: http://www.sendspace.com/file/6hebbx

Packrat, your sig is going to give me nightmares

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Thanks Kairyu, I might check it out on my computer the next time I reformat it. I've heard many good things about it from other sources.

Also, I'm sorry.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Harddisk defragmenting is heavily overrated if you ask me. With modern drives and filesystems such as NTFS, fragmentation is hardly an issue anymore and using the built-in defragmenter in XP (which is essentially the licensed Diskeeper technology, might I add) does its job efficiently enough if you run it once in a blue moon.

Besides, if used too often, frequent defragmentation will ultimately decrease the life expectancy of your drive due to the sustained mechanical stress. Using software defragmenting your disk automatically in the background is especially inadvisable.

How ya doing, buddy?

Alright I installed Diskeeper 10 pro and it replaced the default Defragmenter. If I uninstalled Diskeeper 10 pro, will the deafault prgrams come back?

I was speaking idiomatically.

Originally Posted by Kairyu

Not too sure about the Server Enterprise version but I know all the other versions of diskeeper I've used works on any version of win2k/XP.


Hey Kaiten, is that version any different from Diskeeper 10 Professional Premium? Which is what I'm using.
If there are some substantial advantages to using it I'll gladly take a copy too, if you don't mind!

EDIT: Diskeeper Server Enterprise (IMPORTANT: remember to check the list of supported operating systems to make sure you can run this!): http://www.sendspace.com/file/c00srl

For XP Home users: http://www.9down.com/downloads.php?fileid=359 (Professional Premier Edition)

Remember to compare this Server Enterprise to the Professional Edition(s).

Firstly there's the features:


Then there's the supported operating systems:


Finally about the TVE:

Originally Posted by Diskeeper Help File

Terabyte Volume Engine
Diskeeper Server Enterprise edition includes the Terabyte Volume Engine (TVE), which is a specialized defragmentation engine for very large NTFS volumes (60 GB or larger in size). The TVE is designed to efficiently handle volumes containing millions of files. Note that the TVE is only used on NTFS volumes.

The TVE operates differently from the standard Diskeeper defragmentation engines since it is designed specifically for very large volumes. For example, when the TVE is defragmenting a disk, the graphic display usually shown in the Volume Map tab is replaced with numerical data showing the progress of the defragmentation operation. This reduction in system resource usage pays off in lower CPU consumption and faster defragmentation of very large volumes. (You can optionally disable this resource-saving feature. See Diskeeper Configuration Properties for more information.)

Also, the TVE may or may not examine the whole volume in a single process. This saves system memory resources.

Here is a description of the information displayed in the Volume Map pane when the TVE is defragmenting a volume:

File record examinations
This is the number of times a file record (MFT record) was examined and is basically used to show that progress is occurring. The number may be larger than the number of file records on the volume if a full job runs, because a file record may be examined more than once, or it may be smaller than the number of file records on the volume if the job didn't run to completion.

Fragmented file examinations
This is the number of the above file record examinations that located fragmented files. Again, a file may be examined more than once during a defragmentation job, so this number will not match the "number of fragmented files" in the Job Report tab.

Fragments eliminated
This is the number of fragments that were eliminated by the TVE. It may not match the number of fragments reported in the Job Report tab report because the job was only partially completed, or because files became more or less fragmented as the result of other processes during the period when the engine runs.

Contiguous file examinations
This is the number of the above file record examinations that located contiguous files that could be moved to help consolidate free space. Not all files on the volume are candidates for this action, so the number will most likely be far less than the number of contiguous files in the Job Report tab.

Files that could not be processed
This is the number of times that a file couldn't be moved. The most common reasons for a file not moving are:

Diskeeper was denied permission to open the file (the file did not allow the SYSTEM process Full Control)

The file was open for exclusive use by another process

Free space was no longer available when the move was attempted.

The Windows application event log stores the reason(s) for the first fifty files that could not be processed.

Originally Posted by RPG Maker

Alright I installed Diskeeper 10 pro and it replaced the default Defragmenter. If I uninstalled Diskeeper 10 pro, will the deafault prgrams come back?

Yes, if you uninstall Diskeeper it'll revert to the other defragmenter. But after you've used Diskeeper (provided it's not crashing), I see no reason to use the Windows Defrag over it.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Awesome, and thanks for the extra info Kaiten .

FELIPE NO