defragging?

[awisler]

well, i havent defragged in a long, long time, and i forgot how.

can anyone tell me how? i have windows xp. just trying to get my comp ready for M2TW on the 14th

[belson]

Start --> Programs --> Accessories --> System Tools --> Disk Defragmenter

I recommend you run Disk Cleanup first. It's also found in the System Tools directory.

You can also try a program called Diskeeper that does the same thing, but more efficiently and completely. If I remember correctly, there is a free 30 day trial but then you must buy it.

Oh yeah, and if its been a long, long time, expect it to take many, many hours.


EDIT - And I forgot, if it's been that long, you need to run it more than once.

[awisler]

haha. yes ill start it when i go to sleep, then i have school so that gives it a good 17 hours.

[Erik]

Defragging doesn't make much difference on NTFS.
Back in the days of FAT it was pretty essential to defrag every month or so.
But now you can go by without defagging (although defragging can still increase performance a little).

I don't think defragging will speed up a fresh install of M2TW.

[Spart]

What about FAT32? I noticed that all my drives except C are FAT32. I don't know why, but propably some screwing up when some guy put this ps together. Does that FAT32 simply fall in that "FAT sucks- must be defragged"-category?

E: Btw, happy birthday Erik.

[belson]

Defragging doesn't make much difference on NTFS.
Back in the days of FAT it was pretty essential to defrag every month or so.
But now you can go by without defagging (although defragging can still increase performance a little).

Defraged drive means more sequential reads, more sequential reads means faster access. But most users won't notice a difference in NTFS where they would have with FAT32. So the average user can go without it.

I don't think defragging will speed up a fresh install of M2TW.

Probably true, but then again, always defrag before, not after, you install anything.

What about FAT32? I noticed that all my drives except C are FAT32. I don't know why, but propably some screwing up when some guy put this ps together. Does that FAT32 simply fall in that "FAT sucks- must be defragged"-category?

Yes, FAT32 needs to be defragged more often than NTFS. I don't know why your drives are FAT, but the rule of thumb is:

If the drive is smaller than 32GB, it should be FAT32 (much faster for small drives.)
If it is larger, it should be NTFS (faster on large volumes, more secure, better disk space management, better fault tolerance.)

You can change your drive to NTFS easily without losing any of your files in Windows. Check out this link for instructions. But be aware, the only way to go back to FAT32 without a reformat is to get a program like PartitionMagic, which is not free (there may be a free one, but I've never seen it.)

[Spart]

Yes, FAT32 needs to be defragged more often than NTFS. I don't know why your drives are FAT, but the rule of thumb is:

If the drive is smaller than 32GB, it should be FAT32 (much faster for small drives.)
If it is larger, it should be NTFS (faster on large volumes, more secure, better disk space management, better fault tolerance.)

You can change your drive to NTFS easily without losing any of your files in Windows. Check out this link for instructions. But be aware, the only way to go back to FAT32 without a reformat is to get a program like PartitionMagic, which is not free (there may be a free one, but I've never seen it.)

Most drives seem to be indeed smaller than 32GB, so yeah, defragging time I quess. Thanks for the link also. FAT32 doesn't support files bigger than 4GB, so I might have to use that sometimes.