Windows 7 disk defragmentation.

P

Peter Jason

The windows 7 defrag facility shows 0% defragmentation, but this does
not agree with the Piriform Defragger which shows 30%.

Which is right?

P
 
C

Char Jackson

The windows 7 defrag facility shows 0% defragmentation, but this does
not agree with the Piriform Defragger which shows 30%.

Which is right?
Both are right. There is no single way to optimize a hard drive
volume, so each program has it's own algorithm. The result is that
each program has its own opinion of the state of the drive.
 
P

Peter Jason

Windows 7 does not defragment large files. The cutoff point is around
50MB or so. If you had a 5GB movie file, with 1000 fragments,
the Windows 7 defragmenter won't touch it. Third party defragmentation
tools, will probably defrag everything for you.

Previous Windows OSes, like WinXP and Win2K, will attempt to defragment
everything as well. The Windows 7 one is "lightweight", and only
defragments the things that matter. The Windows 7 defragmenter will
be "finished", and a third party tool will show there is still work
to do. Like fixing up that 5GB movie file.

I'd say the readout on any third party tool, is probably right.

Paul
Thanks; I do have many 5Gb movies.
P
 
C

Char Jackson

Thanks; I do have many 5Gb movies.
P
Note that large video files are generally not affected by
fragmentation. All video players use read-ahead buffers, making file
access time a non-issue in almost all cases. I would even go as far as
saying defragmenting a Windows 7 system is almost entirely unnecessary
as the performance improvement will be below noticeable levels.
 
B

Brian Gregory [UK]

Char Jackson said:
Both are right. There is no single way to optimize a hard drive
volume, so each program has it's own algorithm. The result is that
each program has its own opinion of the state of the drive.
The point actually is that there is no single way to define what is meant by
a percentage fragmented.
30% fragmented could mean many different things.

At one extreme you could say what percentage of files are fragmented in any
way.

At the other you could say if you read right through every file what
proportion of the time you advance from one allocation block to the next in
the file are they not right next to each other on the disk.
 
P

Paul

Brian said:
The point actually is that there is no single way to define what is meant by
a percentage fragmented.
30% fragmented could mean many different things.

At one extreme you could say what percentage of files are fragmented in any
way.

At the other you could say if you read right through every file what
proportion of the time you advance from one allocation block to the next in
the file are they not right next to each other on the disk.
The Sysinternals program "Contig", can scan the entire disk and
tell you whether each file consists of one contiguous chunk, or
is fragmented. The program also allows individual files to be
defragmented. Unlike the WinXP defragmenter, which I noticed "pushes
files to the left", the "Contig" program simply finds blocks of
storage space which are continguous, and transfers the file there
(using the Windows defrag API provided for that purpose, so it's safe).
That means files are left floating somewhere in the right hand portion
of a defragmentation display. But the file is still technically
defragmented - it hasn't been subject to any "relocation policy" at
the same time. It's the closest thing to "pure defragmentation",
rather than combining defragmentation and file location optimization
that other tools provide.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897428

contig -v -a -s C:\ > filelist.txt

("Failed to open C:\\hiberfil.sys: Access is denied.")

In fact, I also found the Contig program useful, just for the purpose
of making a file list for an entire partition. It's pretty fast, as
scanners go.

Paul
 
F

flyingsabre

Peter Jason wrote on 03/03/2011 16:07 ET
The windows 7 defrag facility shows 0% defragmentation, but this doe
not agree with the Piriform Defragger which shows 30%

Which is right
The in-built aint too great, especially if you use your computer a lot. I
fac
it may even damage it. I've been defragging years! I'd say Diskeeper has th
best defragmentation technologies.
 

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