[jhb] Re: Defrag
- From: "Paul Reynolds" <paul@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <jhb@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 3 Jan 2008 10:15:26 -0000
The first start of the day will write some data to the page file which
probably remains there for the rest of your session. When you reboot, this
gets flushed so needs to be re-written when you re-start.
Paul
-----Original Message-----
From: jhb-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:jhb-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf
Of Gerry Winskill
Sent: 03 January 2008 10:06
To: jhb@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [jhb] Re: Defrag
However...
Quitting and re booting resulted in time to load of only 3 mins 53.
Repeating the test produced times of 2 mins 55 and 2 min 56.
My pre defrag time of 3 mins 53 wasn't the first of the day, so the
defrag has probably reduced startup times. Without timing, I've
previously thought the first start of the day seemed to take longer.
These figures seem to prove it. I'm still using SP1, so conditiond are
pretty much the same. So, any theories on why the first start takes so
much longer, as if on exiting FSX, some parts remain in memory.
Gerry Winskill
Gerry Winskill wrote:
> Before defrag, time to load = 3 mins 53
> After defrag, time to load = 5 mins 40
>
> ??????????????????????????????
>
> Gerry Winskill
>
>
>
> Gerry Winskill wrote:
>
>> Thanks Paul, that's clearer.
>>
>> Having done the Horizon drive I'm now doing the FSX bearing C drive.
>> I'm following the instructions to get the FSX files right at the
>> beginning, then to have them undisturbed by future defrags. Or summat!
>>
>> Gerry Winskill
>>
>> Paul Reynolds wrote:
>>
>>> Off topic I suppose but should put your mind at rest. I apologise
>>> in advance if I'm teaching Granny about egg sucking...
>>>
>>> In most cases stopping and restarting a defrag should have no
>>> adverse effect
>>> on the system. The purpose of defrag. is to store files without
>>> them being
>>> scattered in small blocks or fragments of data across the disk, and
>>> preferably files that would be used together, stored together. The idea
>>> being the less the drive heads have to move to read the data, the
>>> quicker
>>> the read from disk.
>>>
>>> However, when we adjust our systems we often change files that would
>>> have
>>> been stored in one place so they get scattered.
>>>
>>> What's worse is when we install a file the system will naturally try
>>> to write it to the first available space on the disk, if it can't
>>> put all the file in the space available then it will move on to the
>>> next available space
>>> and continue there which is how we get file fragmentation. As it
>>> does the
>>> same with temporary files, you can see how easily it is for the
>>> system to
>>> get choked up with fragmented files and the more fragmentation there
>>> is, the
>>> more your drive heads have to jump about alll over the place to read
>>> data
>>> and consequently slowing your machine down.
>>>
>>> When you defrag., what you are doing is re-uniting all the scattered
>>> bits of
>>> files so they are in one contiguous place: Starting at the beginning
>>> of the
>>> disk, it will find all the fragmented parts of a file and copy them
>>> to empty
>>> space, usually at the end of the disk. It will then do the same for
>>> any
>>> other files it needs to move to create a space big enough to write the
>>> fragmented file back at the beginning of the disk but as one continuous
>>> file. It will keep doing this until all the files have been trated
>>> the same
>>> way.
>>>
>>> If it's possible to without causing an issue, I start it defragging
>>> over
>>> night, stop it when you need to use the machine then re-commence
>>> when not
>>> needed until the job is complete. I would then schedule an over-night
>>> defrag. Once a week if you can. This weekly defrag. shouldn't be
>>> too bad
>>> since it'll only have one weeks mayhem to tidy up after, the
>>> majority of the
>>> files should be OK.
>>>
>>> I use a programme called O&O defrag. which has a stealth mode,if it
>>> finds
>>> excessive fragmentation, it will defrag in background. This I find
>>> extremely useful and allows me to not worry about defrag. Though I
>>> should
>>> add that I fell foul of it not long ago as it was active when I did
>>> a hard
>>> reset and that's how I corrupted my C drive. Having said that, I've
>>> been
>>> running it several years without a problem otherwise.
>>>
>>> Hope that helps,
>>>
>>> Paul
>>>
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: jhb-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:jhb-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On
>>> Behalf
>>> Of Peter Dodds
>>> Sent: 02 January 2008 18:20
>>> To: jhb@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
>>> Cc: pdodds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
>>> Subject: [jhb] Re: Defrag
>>>
>>>
>>> I've always assumed that if I stop it prematurely (which is quite
>>> safe by
>>> the way) it would start all over again when I restart it. I had a
>>> laptop
>>> once that always restarted a defrag every 10 minutes or so because
>>> "new data
>>> has been written to disk". I never found out what caused it and I
>>> never
>>> defragged that drive! (because I couldn't).
>>>
>>> Peter
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>
>
>
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