Is Windows defrag any good

[Keeper]

i am using jkdefrag . . . Dunno if it is doing its job. But its quick. My start ups are slow . . .

for slow startups use 0&0 Software - they defrag your main file index or something and can also put windows startup files on the outer rim of your hard drive.

if it's quick it's not doing it's job.

 

[pete]

I run a weekly defrag with PerfectDisk, and it takes quite a long time to get done. Probably due to the fact that I continue working on the pc while it's busy...?

 

[Browser]

Some wonderful misconceptions, nice the see "old wives tales" aren't being left out of the computer age.

 

[Keeper]

I run a weekly defrag with PerfectDisk, and it takes quite a long time to get done. Probably due to the fact that I continue working on the pc while it's busy...?

not a good idea, your HDD heads must be jumping around grinding it's nuts off!

just.don't.do.it.

 

[Keeper]

Some wonderful misconceptions, nice the see "old wives tales" aren't being left out of the computer age.

are you suggesting that defragging has zero performance increase / better hdd life expectancy?

have you ever heard of seek time?

 

[proximiti99]

Hello peeps..

I was told by a freind that I am wasting my time doing a defrag and that it does not do much good..Is there any Truth to this???

Tell your friend he's not only wasting your time, but mine as well
In Win98 using FAT filing, defrag used to increase performance substantially. With NTFS the system works more efficiently, requiring very rare defrags.

If you defrag once every few months on a busy PC then it actually shows a performance increase, as I've experienced. On the other hand it's not worth defraging often eg. once a month, as there shall be little or no performance increase.

 

[Bismuth]

I only defrag when doing irregular system maintenance on my PC, and then only if necessary. When I was running a single-boot Windows system, it sped up my system as I hadn't defragged in years, literally.

B

 

[Browser]

are you suggesting that defragging has zero performance increase / better hdd life expectancy?

have you ever heard of seek time?

I can't seem to find where I said, or even suggested that. Link?

I'm not going to even bother stating what I know and think about this in this forum, it's pointless. Though it can be fun watching all the "l33t" people spitting out "facts" one way or another. However I will say that I do keep my hard drives defragmented.

 

[plazma]

are you suggesting that defragging has zero performance increase / better hdd life expectancy?

have you ever heard of seek time?

Damn right!

Ask any person who uses a pc to to video editing, or audio production how often they HAVE to defrag - and the answer will be - 'every day'.
It is the only way of ensuring the hdd can deliver the data to the cpu fast enough to be processed.

Defragging will not make a huge difference to the user who only writes Word documents or makes pretty little Powerpoint presentations.

But for serious professionals who take their machines to the brink of its performance limits, frequent defragging is essential. All these naysayers
who would convince us that defragging is a waste of time have never stepped into a video editing lab or audio studio.

 

[d0b33]

Damn right!

Ask any person who uses a pc to to video editing, or audio production how often they HAVE to defrag - and the answer will be - 'every day'.
It is the only way of ensuring the hdd can deliver the data to the cpu fast enough to be processed.

Defragging will not make a huge difference to the user who only writes Word documents or makes pretty little Powerpoint presentations.

But for serious professionals who take their machines to the brink of its performance limits, frequent defragging is essential. All these naysayers
who would convince us that defragging is a waste of time have never stepped into a video editing lab or audio studio.

Indeed, even if you game a defrag can prevent stutter or frame drops.

 

[Conradl]

It is important to put the question of defrag into perspective. As I mentioned, and I think everyone agrees, disk fragmentation mostly effects large files, such as large raw video files. If you have a very specific reason to defrag (such as working with large, disk dependent video files, where disk is the bottleneck), and speed is very important then it could help. A 10% performance increase on a job process that takes 10 or 20 hours would be significant. A 10% increase on the time it takes to launch word would amount to less than a second ....

Browser/Plazma, just out of curiosity does your video editing package not store its page/swap file on a single, contiguous disk space, like the windows page file?