Is disk defrag bullshit?

[Guest EQ]

I know that one of the things one should do to keep their PC running best is to defragment the hard drive on a regular basis. I try to keep on top of it but to be honest, I don't know why. I have a good idea of what it's supposed to be doing (moving files around on the hard drive so that they can be accessed more efficiently, if I'm wrong about that please tell me what it does). Whenever I forget to do it for a long time and I finally do get around to doing it (say, after a few months of not doing it) I never notice any difference. My computer doesn't run any faster and files don't seem to be accessed faster. Is it bullshit or does it really make a difference?

[MrRant 0]

It does make a difference. Set it to do so automatically. I do mine once a month at like 2 am.

[Guest EQ]

How do you set it to defrag automatically?

[MrRant 0]

Start -> Accessories-> System Tools-> Scheduled Tasks.

[Guest Doyo]

I never noticed much of a difference before I got Windows XP. With XP I notice a

difference, especially if I have been downloading or installing a lot of stuff.

[Red Baron 0]

Defragmentation only allows to move files, and gets rid of any files that are not neccesary.

 

It does not make your computer any faster, just easier acess to get the files you need

[Guest OnlyMe]

Actually, you're wrong.

 

When you save things to your hard disk, the data isn't stored as: file1,file2,file3,file4 etc. Bits of different files wind up in different places over the disk, because as you delete or move stuff, different size gaps are formed.

 

When a file is accessed, if bits of it are in different places all over the disk, then it will take longer to access than if it were all in one place. The idea of a file being broken up over the disk is called fragmentation.

 

Defragmentation attempts to get as close to file1,file2,file3 as possible, essentially. So yes, it will speed up your disk access times.

 

 

Nik

[The Man in Blak 0]

I never noticed much of a difference before I got Windows XP. With XP I notice a

difference, especially if I have been downloading or installing a lot of stuff.

Part of the reason for that is because the pre-XP Windows Disk Defragger was considerably slower and less efficient, as well as a habitual liar on defragmentation percentages on some machines. The new Defragmenter is decent and it certainly gets the job done, but there are a lot of utilities out there (like Power Defrag or, more famously, Diskkeeper) that one-up it.