In need of a solid defragmenter...see my picture and you'll understand why...

I originally bought my laptop in august of 2006. It is a Lenovo IBM Thinkvantage Thinkpad T60p. I had to purchase it for my school art degree so I do have programs like the adobe suite of photoshop, illustrator, etc. and Cinema 4d as well. As always, there are other files too, word documents, music (about 4 Gb)...Anyways, I have been fairly diligent about keeping my computer running in top condition (running spybot, AVG, avast, cccleaner, and disk cleanup religiously). Also I defragment around twice a week, usually because the accumulated artwork files from around three days are above 20MB, in addition to other defragments... The laptop came preinstalled with Diskeeper Lite as the default defragmenter, not the windows one on older versions...nevertheless I have been using this Diskeeper Lite and been fairly pleased up until about two monts ago when my defragment performance map (the graphical representation) became increasingly pink, claiming that there were more and more low performing system files. I haven't noticed siginificant delay because of this...maybe 2 or three more seconds, but as you'll see in the image...it is a lot. Other students using the same type of laptop in my degree are seeing the same thing. We once considered that it was a ploy by Diskeeper to make you think you need to buy the full version from them...but regardless my two questions are:
1) Is there something causing this problem that I'm doing? ie:defragmenting too much? Ive heard this can be damaging...
2) Does anyone have a suggestion for a really good defragmenter...preferably freeware as myself and my friends are in college and are skint in terms of purchasing power...

 

http://www.majorgeeks.com/IObit_SmartDefrag_d5318.html

 

Wow thanks for the speedy response to one of my questions! I'll try this defragmenter out, I hope its better than Diskeeper, ha but why wouldn't it be, right? So the only thing left that I'd like to know is (above) what causes the system files to become fragmented? ie:why didnt the defragmenter fix those as well?

 

Hmm
I think you need another defragger like a hole in the head. You are already doing too much.
As an arts degree student you are probably spending a lot of time manupulating large (media) files. The operating system has fewer opportunities to place these on the hard drive and lots of smaller gaps occur where it will try to tuck anything it can. The situation is made worse by having lots of levels of undo as temporary undo copies/information will be stored on hard drive once the system (very quickly) runs out of memory.
The remedy is to partition your hard drive. I use one for Windows, one for permanent data, one for 'workspace'. One pc is set up with a drive for video editing. This drive is reformatted before each session as the quickest and easiest way to perform a total defrag! If you set things up this way you will be suprised how ship-shape things stay.

BTW the Windows defragger does a reasonable job, but not in one go. I find that with pcs in for repair I need to run it about five or six times in succession. This is not as bad as it seems because it gets quicker and quicker each time. I run it until there is no visible improvement on the map. The first run may take several (many) hours the last two or three minutes.


Hope this helps
Studio T

 

Okay I have a question after reading this post (apologies for taking so long, school work has been ridiculous)...you say Im doing "too much"...what is the reasonable amount of time to go without defragmenting...is there a rule in terms of say amount of info? For example, if you add more than 25 MB to your system at a time you should defrag...I've heard defragging too much can break your harddisk...Finally, the questions I'd REALLY like answered: What causes the system files to become fragmented? How do I reverse that? (My read out is still the same as the picture above despite the use of another defragmenter) And are my system files really that fragmented or is it a ploy by Diskeeper to make you think you need to buy their software (the reason i ask is because IO Smart defrag says Im in a good harddisk optimization level...
Thank You greatly in advance for your help!

 

i need to know if it is ok to delete XML files from ones PC.

Can anyone tell me.

thanks

 

Fragmented simply means the file is not stored in one place in its entirety. When files are created, deleted, or modified it's almost a certainty they will become fragmented. Nothing you can do about it.

Go into your XP defragment tool and run an Analysis on the disk. When its finished click on the View Report button. This will tell you where you have the most fragmented files. If they are temp files you shouldn't worry. If they are system files they you will know where you are having problems.

Once a week is a reasonable defrag amount if you are a heavy user.

 

Simplified version
As the hard disk is divided into fixed spaces called sectors. As the disk spins the system places data in chunks into the sectors. A chunk goes into the first available free space that passes under the write head. By the time the system is ready to place the next chunk the hard disk will have moved on maybe several sectors and the system places the next chunk and so on. The system keeps a tally of where it place the various bits of data. Wonderful really. Thus each time you read, maybe change and write back a program or data it's chunks go somewhere different on the disk. This is called fragmentation. A large file will gradually get broken up and the chunks get scattered over the disk the more you use it.
Reading tthe file thus takes longer and longer . The reverse process involves collecting the chunks back together again. This requires some workspace to temporarily move the chunks aside before collecting them finally. This is why the drive needs at least 15% free space to defrag.

As regards to defrag policy i can't say better than the official Microsoft XP resource Kit.

Before defragmenting delete any unneccessary files.
Defrag before adding a large number of file to ensure they are stored efficiently.
Defrag after deletion of a large number of files
Defrag after installing programs to collect their parts together
Degrag after installing Windows XP
Defrag during time of low system activity

As I said it can be much quicker to keep a separate partition for workspace and reformat it rather than defrag it when you have finished a project, ready for the next one. I keep a partition specifically to digitise video to and reformat it after each take or set of takes. I don't suffer dropped frames this way.


Yes spoggy you can delete HTML, XML and similar files safely, but shouldn't your question be in your own thread?

Studio T

Studio T

 

Okay that makes a lot more sense now, I've already set up a partition and I believe I have the process down...But that still leaves my other question unanswered, how do I fix the system files that are already fragmented? I use diskeeper and io defrag and both are doing nothing to those files at all, especially diskeeper which after 1 defragment basically does nothing else...thats what had me thinking that diskkeeper, was just saying that i had fragmentation to try to get me to purchase the full version...but IO SmartDefrag seems to contradict that...I will definitely be able to keep my work a lot cleaner from now on, and thank you for that...but its still that last question that I'd like to know...I mean do I just wait and the system files will defragment themselves naturally? Im not trying to beat a dead horse or anything, this is the last question I promise! Its just that I have no idea how to defragment the system files when neither defragmenters are doing anything...

 

That is one reason why if you are a Graphic Artist, constantly creating and modifying these types of files, you should be using a Mac.

 

A word to the wise

Defragmentation happens to all dynamic data storage systems, INCLUDING MACS.
Mac's are just better set up for the publishing and static media industries, but not any more for video as much of the latest professional hardware is only pc compatible.

If you try building up a collection of pictures in folders over a period of time using CDRW or DVDRW you will find the media get slower and slower until one day the computer say I can't read your disk mate. This is due to fragmentation. All you need to do is to copy the whole disk off to hard drive before it becomes unreadable and then copy it back to the CDRW. I had 'full and frank' discussions with Phillips about this a few years back, along the lines of ....If only they warned users at the time I would still have bought and used the technology but would have taken care to allow for the slowing down.

:banghead Phillips & Sony

 

Anybody doing media studies should look at

The PC Multimedia & Web Handbook

http://www.dumbreck.demon.co.uk/

Studio T

 

@rmruk: Thats what I said when my college told us that Industrial Design students had to buy IBMs...but apparently in the sophomore year of ID there is a program that runs our 3d modeling machines and printers (like a computer carving machine and a 3d printer) that only works on windows...bummer i know....and we had to buy these last july which at the time they said, "we dont think this program will work if you run boot camp/parallels" NOW they came out and said, oh yeah it works fine....and every student has to buy Macs...it sucks...and i cant really ditch the ibm for a mac, it was really expensive...and it works just fine....i just dont want my laptop to start sucking because of all this fragmentation....

My question still stands if anyone is out there to answer it....please I would appreciate it....is the only solution to return my hard drive to factory condition (theres an option on the thinkvantage software on my laptop to return it to its factory state (with just windows and the basic stuff), and it will wipe the rest of the hard drive (then I would just reinstall all of my programs and put my files for school back on the hard drive from my portable one)...this seems really unnecessary and excessive to me...so does anybody have a better solution for defragmenting my system files (the picture from my first post still applies), thanks in advance (and studio t i will check out that site, thanks!)

Also I have just started reading about "boot defragmenting" from diskeeper and O&O defrag....does anyone know a solid freeware version of a boot defragmenter....am i right in my reading that boot defragmenters defragment system files before the system loads up and that the reason they are being defragmented by windows is because the system is running?

 

IMO- just download one of the "boot defragmenters" and you'll have a free- 30 day trial period. That SHOULD keep your computer ok for quite some time, even -after the trial expires.

I also had some system files driving me nuts and used "Perfectdisk" to clean them up....but, I don't think it matters -which one you use...as long as it's a "boot defragmenter". (My trial period hasn't expired yet.)

 

Dead wrong, common stero type, you can do graphic art work on either setup, some prefer mac some prefer windows. Please don't spread such a common misconception.

 

Finally, thank you pondhopper for shedding some light on how to fix my system files....and in response to colemanguy, i'd have to agree wholeheartedly with your statement, i have always used windows and despite an original disappointment that i wasn't getting a mac (shows how well they market macs to college students) i really have found no problems with doing graphic programs on windows...even power programs like cinema 4d...and one delightful little fact to anyone in a similar situation: the new intel mac books cause adobe illustrator to crash repeatedly, dont believe me? take two shapes in illustrator adn use the pathfinder to divide them...when you click divide, illustrator crashes...so while my peers on macs are crashing, i quietly smile and realize that having to use antivirus software, spyware protection, and the occasional defrag is a worthwhile price to pay since im not losing valuable work...and truthfully, it doesnt matter which one you have, because if you are a bad artist, its gonna suck on a mac just as much as it does on windows....
Thanks to everybody who helped with this issue and if I have more issues on defrag, I will certainly return, but I have a feeling this will work...thanks everybody!