Can you defrag TOO much?

i defrag like once a day, or several times a week, depending on how much music or other crap ive downloaded...

also i am trying to make sure i keep my operation running real smooth...what do you guys suggest to keep the time between installs at a minimum? i defrag regularly (i use executive diskeeper though instead of windows defrag), and i check for spyware once every day at least.

any suggestions will be great.

 

Actually yes (as i recall) an article from who knows what pc mag, more then once-a-week defrags shortens the life expectancy of a hard drive and really has no use beyond that once a week since there really isnt that much movement occuring between day 1 and day 2. Personally I defrag once a month and I don't see any change in performance.

 

i hardly ever defrag, but i don't see any change when i do anyways...

 

Yes it can shorten the life of the hd but my suggestion is to download a third party defragger like O&O or disk keeper that will give you an option to check how fragmented the drive is, i usually wait tell I get over 20 precent fragmention before defragging.

 

I think everyone has different views regarding the effect of defrags on the HD and also the schedule. I guess it will depend on ur individual use and if your drive gets fragmented pretty soon, (mine does) schedule an automatic defragmenter to run in the background. I've been running Diskeeper Pro for sometime now and feel it doesnt hog system resources, it runs daily and keeps the frag levels under check. I have experienced a performance dip whenever i have ignored maintenance tasks such as diskclean up/defrag as also spyware scans and i do them religiously.

 

Can someone explain how it shortens the life expectancy of a drive any more than heavy computer work?

I offer that as a challenge, because moving data around is moving data around, whether its the paging file, accessing programs, or defragging the drive. A defrag doesnt do anything to shorten the life.

On the other hand, if the read/write heads were actually touching the platter, then yes, I could see a defrag causing physical wear.

 

wow i've been defragging almost every other day, didnt know it shortens the life of a hard drive...that's weird...but good to know i guess...i used diskkeeper lite with O&O's.

 

I don't buy it. I am more than willing to be corrected, but I need someone to provide proof first

Look at this:

http://mcpmag.com/columns/article.asp?EditorialsID=511


I don't know I totally believe this either, but anyway, it says the complete opposite you guys are saying.

 

ok, so what is OandO? i use disk keeper already...

 

http://www.majorgeeks.com/O&O_Defrag_Professional_Edition_d809.html

 

why use two defrags?

 

No need, i was just suggjesting using one or the other. Not using windows builtin defrag.

 

Moving parts wear out. To me defragging often would seem to reduce wear because the procedure would take less time to perform each time would it not? Then the hard drive wouldn't have to work as hard when it's being used.

 

what is the difference between those and the windows built-in? is something wrong with the built-in?

 

maybe. But I fail to see how parts move less when a drive is fragmented.

Edit: To clarify, the hard drive is gonna still operate at 7200rpm, or whatever spindle speed is, and its still gonna move those read/write heads, whether the drive is fragmented, or its accessing the paging file.

I mean, if that were the case...having less ram would cause your hard drive to fail sooner.

 

No, it just doesn't orgranize the data on the drive for fastest access.

Thats the main reason people want something else.

 

I really don't think anyone can say with certainty if regular defragging shortens the life of a hard drive.

It would depend on so many variables, it would be very hard to test.


I'm undecided (although I do it regularly), as a heavily defragged drive will cause it to work harder and slower which can shorten it's life, yet needlessly defragging could also cause it to wear out.

It's a mechanical device, so even having it on will cause wear and tear, like leaving your car engine running.

As I said, it depends on too many variables to say with any certainty.

 

well its brand new, worst case ill have to buy a new one, and by then, it will be hella cheaper anyhow.

 

True,I havent ever come across anyone who has had problems with the HD due to defragging, i think the analyze feature helps decide when to do it and better so with the automatic ones which run in the background and do a neat job.For that matter even MS suggests defragging whenever lots of files are added or deleted, or we download patches/hotfixes etc. With the kind of audio video files that are downloaded nwadays, the drive tends to get fragmented pretty soon.

 

I also read a tech piece on the fact that too much defragging can damage a hard drive. They were quite specific about it, saying that it was not a good idea at all to do it more than once every month or two.

 

was the article written before the advent of the internet? because mine is fragged at least once a week.

i dont buy it. and ill take the fast running but supposedly self destructive computer any day, and every year or so buy a new drive, if thats what it takes.

 

Clever.
It was just about 4 years ago. And there's been nothing technology-wise that would have changed the picture since then.

 

Well, unless you can provide an article, such as I have (stating the opposite), I fail to be duly impressed. I am asking for proof, not a "well I read" statement.

 

All this being said, I've never heard of anyone having trouble from defragging once a month and like one of the earlier posters suggested, there's not much difference from doing it once a month or once a week.

 

Unfortunately it would not be proof to mention the article either, as it was simply the opinion of a writer for a computer mag. A study of the situation would require that a great deal of issues were taken into consideration, at the very least you would need two control groups. One that defragged a lot, and one that never did. Then you would have to compare failure rates.
That being said, it is very easy to be analytical here and come to an educated guess. During a defrag there is a much higher amount of disc access than there is during say, casual internet surfing. So it would not require a background in physics to declare that the drive is undergoing a larger percentage of wear and tear during a defrag than it does during typical usagage. Done daily, it would be very easy to see how you could expect "some" degree of a shortening of drive life. Even if that "some" degree is measured in mere days or weeks.

 

The same could be said about accessing programs on a heavily fragmented drive, or a low memory computer using the paging file. Drive lifespans are rated a certain hour amount, with constant disk useage. Nobody should expect their drive to live longer than that, or be surpised if it doesn't exceed such specification.

 

Too much needless and repetitive defragging would wear out a hard drive, just as leaving it on all the time will.

Like any mechanical device, using it or having it on will cause wear and friction.

It's about finding a balance, and defragging when beneficial and not for the sake of it.

 

You obviously don't know how much of a tight-arse I am, I'm still using a Pentium II and III.

 

LOL, is that all, 10 yrs?

Luckily it's council clean-up day this week, time to scrounge the local footpaths again.

 

Just an fyi about that though - the mtbf of hard drives isn't to be compared with scsi drives. Normal hard drive ratings are not based on 24/7 use like scsi drives are. I forget what they use for normal drives but it's only like 6 or 8 hours per day. It's still impressive, but not scsi by any means.

 

even if you take his number divided by ten, ill have a different drive by then.

 

In the end, it all boils down to, back up your stuff, hard drives aren't forever

 

I defrag almost every day. Always have. And never had a h/d go. It is a fact of PC life. Stuff gets used. Stuff wears out. So? *shrugs* This thread is kinda funny. LOL ;p With the price of PC gear dropping so low now compared to years ago, why worry?

 

I dont see how defraging to mutch whould shorten hard drives lives ... Thow i dont see how moving a ton of data around every other day is a good idea ...I normaly defrag every week or two depending on how bad it is.........

 

I couldn't agree with you more. I run a scsi desktop computer.
And all my stuff, every bit of it is backed up to at least one extra hard drive. The important stuff to 2 drives. The great thing about a multiple drive rig is that reinstalling windows is an absolute walk in the park because I just drag and drop all the documents, photos, favorites etc right into the main drive.

 

what's the difference between o&O and diskeeper and what makes them any different from the built-in MS one?

 

The built in defragger (xp) is a LITE version of Diskeeper.

There are many versions of defragging tools. Some Diskeeper is quite fast in defragging, but, IMHO, on many tests, doesn't defrag the best. But, I'm sad to say, I have no online or offline documentation to back this up.

I prefer either O&O (very slow, but does the best job) or Perfect disk (my current favorite) as the best solution.

Side note number 91:

You don't believe me that diskeeper is built into xp? Check out:

c:\windows\system32\defrag.exe

Check the properties.

Now, notice that Both Microsoft and Executive Software International Inc. are both the owners of this defrag program.

 

thx alot. out of those mentioned do any of them happen to be freeware?

 

Diskeeper Lite, O&O Defrag 2000 Freeware Edition

 

Thanks for the links! I should have mentioned these!

Side note number 92 Or is it 93? Anyway, Diskeeper lite DOES work with 98/ME machines, btw.

Also, I wonder if diskeeper lite is the same version as the built in version of XP. I'll let someone else answer....Time for dinner....

 

thanks so much!!! any info on which one of the two is better than the other?

 

trailblazur...initially i started out with using O&O's free one, then a few weeks later diskkeeperlite, both are great.
don't know if it's good or not, but i'll use one, then if there are any fragments, sometimes the other one catches them...buuut....since apparently it's not good to do it all the time, i'm gonna stick to diskkeeperlite myself for now, it seems to have been the better of the 2 (for me i noticed).

 

Hello i keep reading threads telling people to defrag all the time to keep your pc running smooth. i would just like to bring this back to some peoples attention. thanks for ya help over the time MG cya UKARMYCADET

 

I tried O&O defrag 2000 freeware. It`s crap compared to O&O Professional. It is not even remotely the same performancewise. Go O&O Pro. Your PC and patience will love you for it.

 

I like O&O Defrag because you can Analyze your drive then pick out the files that need to be defraged with touching the others. It's a very fast that way and you don't wear out your Drive like you would if you do a full defrag all the time.

 

That should be without touching the others