Defragging

ok this is a simple question, what exactly does a defrag do and is the windows xp defrag tool a good one.

thankz

 

More Info about clusters and defragging

P.S. Also testing my new animated gif avatar

 

ya thanks now that i now what a defrag does and that the windows defrag tool is an ok tool. I think it might be time to dicuss good tools, like o&o and pefrect disk, in your guys expert opinions which one is better

 

Think PerfectDisk "Smart Placement" and Diskeeper "Application Optimization" (PerfectDisk also has this) are two different things.

Smart Placement monitors whether the files on the disk has been updated lately. If a file isn't updated (Doesn't change size) for a long time then it grouped tightly together with other files which doesn't change size. But if a file is frequently then it is placed so it has room to grow by leaving some free space ahead of the file. This should keep the HDD from becoming easily fragmented again.

Application Optimization is performed by using the contents of the Prefetch folder (Which every1 loves to delete for some reason). When a program is loaded then it seldom just load the exe-file alone but a whole range of files. By placing these files closely together then the HDD has to make less seeks to read all the files, thus making the application start faster.

Diskeeper Lite and the XP's builtin diskkeeper includes the Application Optimization. But neither of them has Smart Placement, for it is "owned" by PerfectDisk.