Few Tips to optimize Your Drives for Better Performance.

[atalwar]

I was optimizing a Friends System this weekend and thought i could share some tips that could help you guys out.

Most of us know or have heard about defragmenting but the trouble is nowdays drives are too big and entire drive defragmenting takes eternity so most of us don't bother.

The Solution is Partial Defrag.

1. Just Defrag some critical System Areas.

2. Defrag your most used large files. Like RW Songs etc or entire RW folder.

You will need these two free Tools (also you should have some bit of free space on the drive. so these tools can reduce your file fragments.

1. PageDefrag : http://technet.microsoft.com/hi-in/sysinternals/bb897426(en-us).aspx

Just download and install it somewhere. Run it and set whatever option suits you. I run it Every Time on Boot.

2. Wincontig : http://wincontig.mdtzone.it/en/index.htm

Download / install Run it.

Tell it what specific files and folders you would like it to defrag and it will try to reduce the fragments as much as possible.
Advantages, Large files load faster. Less overhead on your drive etc.

You can run this on as per need basis.


Hope these Help..

Regds,
Amit

[GuitarSlinger]

I'm gonna have to disagree here. If you defrag often like once a week, it is very quick and there really is no excuse for not defragging completely if performance is what you are after.

I've got a blank drive partition at the start of my disk where it is fastest too, I record there and capture video there. It never gets defragged because I keep it empty.

[ShredRex]

I have never noticed a difference before or after I defrag.....to me it more important to set what programs start automatically with Windows no matter what version you use....to minimize CPU drag and memory usage.

But I do defrag weekly as well......so I still recommend your frag regularly.....lol

[camaro24gold]

I defrag more often than once a week and during heavy recording sessions defrag. I do see differences with before and after.
I use the Diskeeper interface which offers more options with defrag and speeds things up.

[epauley]

I have always defraged on a regular basis but, like shredrex, notice no difference in performance - maybe because I do it regularly (lol). I have never partitioned a disk drive because I haven’t needed to do so.

Does Diskeeper actually do anything that a full defragmenting does not do?

[atalwar]

I'm gonna have to disagree here. If you defrag often like once a week, it is very quick and there really is no excuse for not defragging completely if performance is what you are after.

As you Said Your defrag is Quick as you do defrag every Week and Your Drive Really Does not Get Really Fragmented Much in the First Place for defrag to be that Time Consuming.

I Should have been a bit more clear earlier that the above solution applied to people who do not defrag at all (due to lack of knowledge or lazyness) and find a need (or are advised to) when performance gets sluggish later on etc. Even if just the Critical System Areas are Defragmented Regularly.Your OS consumes less cycles(resources) to do it's own dirty work and your applications get the chunk of the free cycles.

Also the Defrag Performance can vary a lot between 2 systems , depending how these systems have been used. the File Szes, cluster sizes and Number of Files the Person has Dealt with in the past etc. They all can contribute to less or more fragmentation.

If You defrag Regularly there is no Need for the above at all.

I've got a blank drive partition at the start of my disk where it is fastest too, I record there and capture video there. It never gets defragged because I keep it empty

I have a dedicated drive partition for my swap files /virtual memory and seperate drives and partitions for various things too. but ain't that because we know the benefits for our particular needs to have set up our systems accordingly.

The above tips may Not be applicable to even 1 person in the Forums, but if someone finds em' useful , good enough.

Also note : Fragmentation is not the only(Read: usually never) reason for poor performance. (And Format is Not always the Only Solution for every pc Problem )

[camaro24gold]

Does Diskeeper actually do anything that a full defragmenting does not do?

It has always been faster than the standard interface for me. You can also set it to dfrag at certain time such as whenever screen saver kicks on. I have an older version (5.1.2600.2180) so am not up to date with what the newer versions are capable of. You can also do boot time defrags which allow you to defrag areas that otherwise you cannot.

[GuitarSlinger]

I'm gonna have to disagree here. If you defrag often like once a week, it is very quick and there really is no excuse for not defragging completely if performance is what you are after.

As you Said Your defrag is Quick as you do defrag every Week and Your Drive Really Does not Get Really Fragmented Much in the First Place for defrag to be that Time Consuming.

I Should have been a bit more clear earlier that the above solution applied to people who do not defrag at all (due to lack of knowledge or lazyness) and find a need (or are advised to) when performance gets sluggish later on etc. Even if just the Critical System Areas are Defragmented Regularly.Your OS consumes less cycles(resources) to do it's own dirty work and your applications get the chunk of the free cycles.

Also the Defrag Performance can vary a lot between 2 systems , depending how these systems have been used. the File Szes, cluster sizes and Number of Files the Person has Dealt with in the past etc. They all can contribute to less or more fragmentation.

If You defrag Regularly there is no Need for the above at all.

I've got a blank drive partition at the start of my disk where it is fastest too, I record there and capture video there. It never gets defragged because I keep it empty

I have a dedicated drive partition for my swap files /virtual memory and seperate drives and partitions for various things too. but ain't that because we know the benefits for our particular needs to have set up our systems accordingly.

The above tips may Not be applicable to even 1 person in the Forums, but if someone finds em' useful , good enough.

Also note : Fragmentation is not the only(Read: usually never) reason for poor performance. (And Format is Not always the Only Solution for every pc Problem )

Good stuff Atalwar. I highly recommend Vopt defragger. Free trial.

http://www.vopt.com/

[davenz]

All you need is jkdefrag, set it as your screensaver and viola! Defragged all the time.

http://www.kessels.com/Jkdefrag/ it is also freeware.

There is really no need for expensive and fiddly defraggers at all. As has been pointed out, the best recipe for speed is fewer resident programs and less fluff all round.

I recommend turning off all anti-malware/spyware/virus type applications when recording and slimming Windows down as much as you can and still have it running. I have a basic 2-part guide posted here for those interested:

http://www.stuff.co.nz/thepress/4498783a24229.html

These guides are for XP but those with Vista can easily cross-reference and tune their OS as well.

Dave.

[epauley]

Thanks for the explanation Tim.

[28if]

Hey Dave, the article is very cool. I also like the tool kit you put together.

atalwar, very good advice. I agree, move your page file and defrag!

28if

[Charvelguy]

yes, good advice here. I just bought MS One... so there will be a PC with that on it somewhere in my place.. probably a backup, home media, or possible networked server app.

The way I look at it is much the way some people look at regular wash/maintenance of their vehicle. A clean computer hard drive is a happy computer hard drive.

Appreciate the posted recommendations and links to the free apps/shareware.

[GuitarSlinger]

I wouldn't say that all defraggers ae created equally. I especially hated the windows one, which led me to buy the one I did thanks to the recommendation of an overclockers club. Sure I didn't technically need a commercial defragger, but I also didn't mind paying for something I found value in.

We did see a nice jump in read and write speads after defragging with it compared to other ones we tried.

[atalwar]

The way I look at it is much the way some people look at regular wash/maintenance of their vehicle.

Thanks a Ton,
I had Forgotten that my Bike Service is Due for months.

~Amit