Okay to defrag external hard drive?

I've got a lot of images on 2 external hard drives. So I decided to delete some of them on 1 external hdd as the drives are getting pretty full.

I did a defrag on the above one, analyzed it first with Auslogics Defrag and it said fragmentation was 85%! So it did take over 7 hours just to defrag. :cry

Questions: is it okay to defrag an external hard drive after deleting images? Does it leave the sequence and intregrity of those images in tact?

PS: I know, I know, I should've asked you guys first. TIA

 

I've been told that Win 7 defrags automatically and the pics show that is the case.

My external HDD (O) shows zero frags, but Auslogics shows a ton - also ERRORS

I'll stick with Win 7 to do any defrags.

Couldn't upload Auslogics pic (too big, I guess)

 

oma...I haven't had any problems after deleting images. I keep my images, audio, and video on a back up drive and defrag all 3 drives every night at 2:15 AM. Total defrag takes about 8-10 minutes for about 200 total GB worth.

I just remembered...don't know if it matters, but I keep the folder with my images, etc. locked. Don't think that affects a defrag, but I can't say for sure that AUSLogics looks beyond a folder lock to defrag files, so I'm not sure about the integrity issue. Can only say I haven't had a problem. RealPlayer plays music from locked folders, so I suppose there's not much reason for me to believe AUSLogics would be stopped from defragging the same. Oh yes, this is XP...

If Windows 7 defrags automatically without regard to what types of files are being defragged, then I guess it must be OK.

 

I had never before deleted images and defragged my external hard drives so that must be why my first defrag took that long. I prefer a third party defragger rather than Windows'. I like to see what it does! The 2nd ext. HDD (which is newer) took almost 3 hours to defrag because I deleted many images, 99% defragmentation, but much faster than my old ext. HDD.

PS: I think that from now on I will delete one image from these HDDs and defragging them prior to creating a new image.

Good to know that you didn't have any problems with your images after defragging. Thanks!

 

Defragmentation works the same on external hard drives as internal ones.

It is almost impossible for a hard drive to reach 99% fragmentation right after being defragmented. The only two cases are if the drive is extremely damaged, or if the program is incorrect.

My guess is that the program you are using to defragment is wrong. Try IOBit SmartDefrag, available for free from the MajorGeeks download centre. This will confirm if the drive is actually that fragmented.

 

Defrag programs all work differently, each having its own idea - algorithm - of the optimal disk layout. So after defragging with Windows you would expect Auslogics or any other defragger to want to change it. The Win 7 and 8 built in defraggers do work really well on their default auto schedule but the golden rule is only to use one defragger and to stick with it.

 

No, Auslogics showed 99% defragmented files before defragging the HDD. Now it's back to 0%. So I believe it's working okay. I may consider using IOBit next time though. Thanks.

Good to know.

 

I really don't like Windows' own defrag. program and have it turned off. I only use Auslogics.

 

Any particular reason? I have three hard drives home to seven partitions and three operating systems and just let Windows do its thing. I checked just now and every partition is 0% fragmented. I never have to even think about it.

 

As I said in my post #4:

That's for now the reason I want to stick with Auslogics. I do a regular weekly manual maintenance of all stuff to be updated, scanning etc. and do a monthly imaging. I like my way of doing things.

 

I wasn't trying to persuade you to change oma. My only recommendation was to choose and stick with just one defragger - whichever one you prefer. Personally I can't be bothered watching Auslogics coloring all those squares, I'm happy for it all to happen in the background while I do something rather more useful. Totally agree with you about regular maintenance and imaging though.

 

I know that Earthling, guess I'm stuck in my way of doing things because it works for me and I like it. Being retired gives me plenty of time to look at colored boxes in Auslogics, it's a break from seeing just alpha and numerics. :-D

 

Wait a minute...who said watching colored boxes can't be productive?

oma, if it's any consolation, I don't trust MS defragger honestly. At MS, they never seem to finish anything to my satisfaction, so I can't imagine that the defragger actually defrags. Earthling, let's not forget where those reported 0% numbers come from...

OK OK, I am using Windows xp which has no backgroud defrag function...and, honestly, I never get to see the colored boxes in AUSLogics...it defrags while I sleep...

 

Can't dispute that but I s'pose I could turn off the defrag schedule and see what happens over the next week or so. Just might do that when I think about it .....

 

Pull out your can of oh no Earthling...

Let em have all the barrels

:major

Seriously, I was mostly just kidding about the Microsoft defragger. I won't set up an account on xp, so I can't run defrag on a schedule (scheduler won't work without a password). I guess you knew that.

AUSLogics is great, and it has its own scheduler, but I suppose all PCs will defrag in the background eventually. Maybe AUSLogics will put that on their list