Defrag question

[pbmaster]

Is it possible to defrag a HDD too much? Seems reasonable that it would, with the increased usage and what not. Just something I would like to know.

[Fuse-Wire]

think it may be possible if you mannage to over do the read/write limit. never achived it myself.

[von kain]

i can't understand what you want but i guess that it don't hurt at all

[Fuse-Wire]

it would take one hell of a long time to burn out a hard drive that way aswell, all mine that have failed have done so through disc errors, none due to defraging it too much, never got close to the read/write limits

[mcloughj]

Maybe the question should be: Should you defrag at all? The only reason to optimise something is to make it faster, but does the time you'd spend on defragging really save you time when using your computer? I'm gonna say 'No' myself! Also why add to the wear and tear on your drive?

[pbmaster]

I know defragging helps, I was just wondering if you could over do it. I usually do it about twice a day to keep the fragments as low as possible.

[Namslas90]

I know defragging helps, I was just wondering if you could over do it. I usually do it about twice a day to keep the fragments as low as possible.

Yeah thats probably too much. Once every couple of weeks if you do a lot of downloading, other than that maybe once a month at the most. Keep in mind your HDD has a "lifetime" and the more you run it the less it lasts. Running too many Defrags one after another can be bad also, as it realy heats up the drive, causes to much wear.

[mandelore]

lol, i dunno why, but i have maybe defragged 4 times in 2 years on my rig ^^ does deleting partitions acheive the same? coz ive recently (within a week)_ just reformated, deleted partitions etc and reinstalled vista

[nflesher87]

Maybe the question should be: Should you defrag at all? The only reason to optimise something is to make it faster, but does the time you'd spend on defragging really save you time when using your computer? I'm gonna say 'No' myself! Also why add to the wear and tear on your drive?

that was the dumbest advice I've ever read...set it to defrag when you go to sleep

pretty much the best way to do it is to analyze the drive once a week but only defrag when it says to or you can visual see a fair amount of fragmentation (the red in the drive image)
even at that, if you haven't been installing/uninstalling much you're probably not going to need to defrag but if you do lots of downloading/installing/uninstalling then you're going to be creating more fragmentation
twice a day is waaayy overkill and yes in that case you're put unnecessary wear on your drive...personally I'd say once a week is best as long as there's fragmentation

[Namslas90]

lol, i dunno why, but i have maybe defragged 4 times in 2 years on my rig ^^ does deleting partitions acheive the same? coz ive recently (within a week)_ just reformated, deleted partitions etc and reinstalled vista

Reformating also removes fragmented files (and everything else), so it's basicaly the same thing. A lot of it depends on the user, if you 'run a tight ship' then you probably don't need to defrag as much as others. Iv'e seen HDD's that were not defraged in 2-3 years and were 90% or more fragmented.:eek:(and the guy wondered why his system lagged so much:laugh:)

[Fuse-Wire]

i used to defrag once every fortnight. my pc ran smooth when i done that, when i left it a couple of months man thats when the problems started.

[{JNT}Raptor]

Once a week while you sleep......you'll never need more than that.

Not to Insult or anything..but twice a day Is Insane......You'll kill the drive with Kindness that way.

[Jonnycat]

lol, i dunno why, but i have maybe defragged 4 times in 2 years on my rig ^^ does deleting partitions acheive the same? coz ive recently (within a week)_ just reformated, deleted partitions etc and reinstalled vista

Yeah, I do it maybe a couple of times a year now; with the speed and capacity of modern drives it just doesn't make that much of a difference anymore.

[Fuse-Wire]

fall asleep when defragging??? only ever took about a half hour max for me

[Buckaroo Banzai]

Every week or so works for me. Start the defrag, go have a smoke or snack and by the time I'm back all is done.

[ex_reven]

Sif kill hard drive with Defrag :wtf:
Its just moving files around...its not attempting to achieve a disk RPM speed record :p

[nora.e]

My norm is after a new game or major program get's installed, and once a week with the rest of the maintanace stuff. only takes about 5 minutes a defrag. as for temp.... my hdd runs between 29.5 - 31C even under heavy load. Don't see where that's causing any extra strain.

[Jonnycat]

Sif kill hard drive with Defrag :wtf:
Its just moving files around...its not attempting to achieve a disk RPM speed record :p


The problem I come across most often is people with an already dodgy system who "learn" about defrag and then defrag whenever they have a problem, thinking it is a magic cureall.

What they end up doing is corrupting their files until they eventually need a full reinstall. It's kind of like how people eat too many vitamins and then get kidney stones.

[Casheti]

Whenever it needs doing.

I do a lot of downloading so that's pretty regularly. But I've only got 8% space on my Download Partition (which is 130GB) so it says it won't defrag properly. :wtf: Oh well...

[Namslas90]

Whenever it needs doing.

I do a lot of downloading so that's pretty regularly. But I've only got 8% space on my Download Partition (which is 130GB) so it says it won't defrag properly. :wtf: Oh well...


Yeah you need 10% freespace minimum, just move some files to other partition - defrag - then move them back. you might even gain some space.

[surfsk8snow.jah]

Ya prolly once every week or two is a good idea, considering the flux of info that occurs on most computers now.
Question: I've heard that Windows Defrag is a good program, but there are better algorithms out there. What's the best (or your preference) for Defragging (BESIDES windows)?

[hat]

I never used anything other than the windows defragger... I only do it about once a month anyways... after than enough shit's been deleted, installed, uninstalled, etc... kinda like drinking some water, clears all the gunk out... makes it smoother

[DRDNA]

Now you have hit on a debate thats been going both ways for years ....Some say too much defragging can result in more wear and tear....I say thats rubbish. Some say that defragging in the long run make the drive work less...that I agree with....Now some say it just plain crazy but I defrag at least once a day and more depending on whats going on....I run raid 0 on every thing and I use my rigs for overclocking all DFI boards....I crash my rig almost at least once a day from windows and never ever lost an array or even had a hard drive falure.....Now I have seen my self in person many hard drive failures on boxes that don't get defragged,who knows about if they had been defragged on the regular?Hmmmmmm;):toast:

[{JNT}Raptor]

fall asleep when defragging??? only ever took about a half hour max for me

Some peeps can't stand to let It do It's thing while they are In front of the rig.....Hence my reason for telling him to let It defrag overnight.

The average computer user NEVER defrags...I setup all my customers with automated defragging and scanning....Some like to be bothered with the knowledge....most (Average Users) don't care to know. :cool:

[DRDNA]

fall asleep when defragging??? only ever took about a half hour max for me

lol with my defragging habits it never ever takes longer than 2 minutes ,but then again they are all raid 0 and thats makes a huge difference.

[keakar]

Is it possible to defrag a HDD too much? Seems reasonable that it would, with the increased usage and what not. Just something I would like to know.

it is not something you "need" to do very often. if you put lots of data on your computer then that would determine when you need to do it. well correction, you do "need" to defrag your computer after you install windows and software like if you just built a new computer.

think of defrag as cleaning out the garage, unless you put a lot of crap in there you dont need to rearange and organize everything in there. if it is a little messy it wont stop you from finding what you need. i would say the average user would do fine to defrag once a year but just like cleaning the garage out every spring, if you forget to do it it wont matter.

[ex_reven]

think of defrag as cleaning out the garage, unless you put a lot of crap in there you dont need to rearange and organize everything in there. if it is a little messy it wont stop you from finding what you need. i would say the average user would do fine to defrag once a year but just like cleaning the garage out every spring, if you forget to do it it wont matter.

nice analogy. Id suggest a more often defrag for the average user.
Gamers and other TPUer's could getaway with the once a year defrag because I recon we keep our systems alot neater. Average users tend to want to get what they want from the computer and get off, so they end up downloading heaps of crap and stashing it in heaps of different places, multiple installs of the same thing, dead links/shortcuts etc.

Id say theyd do better with once every 4-6months. Also keep in mind that the average users hardware will be worse than ours, so while fragmentation of our drives might not be as noticible because our hardware is pretty performance oriented, theirs might suffer alot more, bringing their system to a halt.

[Wile E]

Once a year is far too little. You will absolutely lose performance by waiting that long. Your machine will be much happier with at least once a month.

I personally defrag at least once a week, but I do a lot of installing/uninstalling, downloading, and movie "back-ups". (Yay Netflix! lol)

And for the person that asked, I don't use the Windows defrag, in fact, it's not even installed on my system (courtesy of nLite). I use O&O Defrag. It has the perfect algorithms for me.

[spud107]

i defrag whenever i remember to do it, O&OFTW!!!

[ex_reven]

i defrag whenever i remember to do it, O&OFTW!!!

Looks good. Its only 15 day trial software though :(
I dont like trial software.

[Wile E]

Looks good. Its only 15 day trial software though :(
I dont like trial software.A little birdy told me you "bought" the full version. lol

[ex_reven]

A little birdy told me you "bought" the full version. lol

Was it Russianboy?
He owns like 95% of the worlds torrent servers and he still pirates software :laugh:

[Fuse-Wire]

i defrag whenever i remember to do it, O&OFTW!!!

O&O defrag, so amazing. Spud installed it on my old unit some time ago whe the microsoft one decided to fail misserably. should really grab a copy off him for this laptop i just built. Mind you for all the software he gave me the ammount og games and music he got back, still think he's owe me something!!

[spud107]

my version is surprisingly legit, there was an offer for a free code for version 4 a while ago, an theres an old freeware version floating about the net.

[Fuse-Wire]

my version is surprisingly legit, there was an offer for a free code for version 4 a while ago, an theres an old freeware version floating about the net.

what. you mean as ligit as 90% of the other software you have on that pc!! haha i cant say much i wasn't any better