How Often Disk Defrag

K

Karen F

How often should you use Disk Defrag? I now have mine set for once a
month. Thanks.
 
Q

Quilljar

That should be plenty. I believe windows 7 defrags when necessary if you set
it to do so.
Q

"Karen F" wrote in message
How often should you use Disk Defrag? I now have mine set for once a
month. Thanks.
 
J

Jeff

That should be plenty. I believe windows 7 defrags when necessary if you
set it to do so.
Q

in message
How often should you use Disk Defrag? I now have mine set for once a
month. Thanks.
Click to expand...
I also defrag about once a month.
How do you set Windows 7 to defrag automatically?
Thanks.
 
S

Stephen Wolstenholme

That should be plenty. I believe windows 7 defrags when necessary if you set
it to do so.
Q
Click to expand...

Where do you set W7 to defragment when necessary? It can be run
manually or scheduled to daily, weekly, monthly but that's it so far
as I know.

Steve
 
B

Bob I

Default setting after installation is found at

Task Scheduler, Task Scheduler Library, Microsoft, Windows, Defrag
 
S

Stan Brown

How often should you use Disk Defrag? I now have mine set for once a
month. Thanks.
Click to expand...

The stock answer is that it depends on your patterns of disk usage.
But FWIW, since Windows XP was released I have occasionally done a
disk defrag and never, with XP or Win 7, never have I ever seen it
make any improvement.
 
C

Char Jackson

The stock answer is that it depends on your patterns of disk usage.
But FWIW, since Windows XP was released I have occasionally done a
disk defrag and never, with XP or Win 7, never have I ever seen it
make any improvement.
Click to expand...

Agreed. I've never seen it make a noticeable improvement. My
environment is XP and 7, all on NTFS. My advice is to just skip this
task.
 
J

J. P. Gilliver (John)

Char Jackson said:
Agreed. I've never seen it make a noticeable improvement. My
environment is XP and 7, all on NTFS. My advice is to just skip this
task.
Click to expand...
I doubt you'd _often_ see an improvement in _performance_ - perhaps if
playing a large video file that was fragmented into lots of tiny pieces.
I _would_ feel _happier_ with a defragged disc - because I feel a
much-fragmented file is more likely to get corrupted, or cause some
other corruption; I do however concede that this is just a feeling.

One case where it could make a difference is drive wear: which way it
makes the difference will change with usage. If you have a lot of
fragmented files which you read often, then your head will do a lot of
seeking; conversely, if you don't read them often, you'll do a lot of
seeking when doing a defrag which you wouldn't otherwise.

(To answer the subject question: I very rarely defrag., usually when I
see a post about a different defragger which someone says is better and
I try it! Can't say I've noticed any improvement, though I _feel_ better
about it - feel the system is likely to be more _reliable_.[And yes I
know that doing the defrag. itself is in theory capable of damaging.])
 
C

choro

I doubt you'd _often_ see an improvement in _performance_ - perhaps if
playing a large video file that was fragmented into lots of tiny pieces.
I _would_ feel _happier_ with a defragged disc - because I feel a
much-fragmented file is more likely to get corrupted, or cause some
other corruption; I do however concede that this is just a feeling.

One case where it could make a difference is drive wear: which way it
Click to expand...

I was going to say!
-- choro
makes the difference will change with usage. If you have a lot of
fragmented files which you read often, then your head will do a lot of
seeking; conversely, if you don't read them often, you'll do a lot of
seeking when doing a defrag which you wouldn't otherwise.

(To answer the subject question: I very rarely defrag., usually when I
see a post about a different defragger which someone says is better and
I try it! Can't say I've noticed any improvement, though I _feel_ better
about it - feel the system is likely to be more _reliable_.[And yes I
know that doing the defrag. itself is in theory capable of damaging.])
Click to expand...
 
S

Stefan Patric

How often should you use Disk Defrag? I now have mine set for once a
month. Thanks.
Click to expand...

Only when it needs it. And not before. Anymore is a waste of time.

There are XP user desktops that I service several times a year. (And fix
when they "break" more frequently.) The systems are used in a business:
small and large files created, downloaded, uploaded, saved, copied, moved
around, deleted, etc. Probably, more use in a month or two than an
average single user would in year. On average, they only NEED defragging
about every 3 months or so.

Stef
 
V

VanguardLH

Stan said:
Thanks for the advertisement, but what does it have to do with Jeff's
question.
Click to expand...

What did Jeff ask? What does the article say?

So if someone tells you where is the wall switch to turn off the room
lights, you can't figure out it's the same wall switch to turn them on?
 
A

Ant

Speaking of disk defragging in Windows 7. Is the internal the best one
to use or is there a better third party (freeware preferred) to use?

Thank you in advance. :)
--
"Imagine what it would be like to dive into a pool of army ants? You
would be nothing but bone in a matter of seconds. If you're not up to
that, just imagine putting your hand in a jar of them. It would have to
be labeled corrosive or something." --Zhan Huan Zhou
/\___/\ Ant(Dude) @ http://antfarm.ma.cx (Personal Web Site)
/ /\ /\ \ Ant's Quality Foraged Links: http://aqfl.net
| |o o| |
\ _ / If crediting, then use Ant nickname and AQFL URL/link.
( ) If e-mailing, then axe ANT from its address if needed.
A song is/was playing on this computer: MusicWizard - Golden Axe - Stage
1 v.2 FINAL [Remake]
 
P

Paul

Ant said:
Speaking of disk defragging in Windows 7. Is the internal the best one
to use or is there a better third party (freeware preferred) to use?

Thank you in advance. :)
Click to expand...

The built-in defragmenter, defragments any file smaller than 50MB in size.
It won't defragment files larger than that.

Consequently, if you're a dyed-in-the-wool defragmenter type person,
you'll want *any* third party defragmenter, rather than the built-in one.
The built-in one solves a pragmatic problem, of only defragmenting
the files that need it. Whereas the third party defragmenter, will
make your drive look "pretty" (in the on-screen map). And that's worth
an extra $39.95.

Paul
 
P

Paul in Houston TX

Karen said:
How often should you use Disk Defrag? I now have mine set for once a
month. Thanks.
Click to expand...

I don't like to stress drives more than necessary.
Defrag gets them real hot and noisy.
I don't bother any more with the 3 gb/sec black drives.
 
J

J. P. Gilliver (John)

[QUOTE="Paul said:
Speaking of disk defragging in Windows 7. Is the internal the best one
to use or is there a better third party (freeware preferred) to use?

Thank you in advance. :)
Click to expand...

The built-in defragmenter, defragments any file smaller than 50MB in size.
It won't defragment files larger than that.[/QUOTE]

Actually, I think it's _with fragments_ smaller than some size.
Consequently, if you're a dyed-in-the-wool defragmenter type person,
you'll want *any* third party defragmenter, rather than the built-in one.
The built-in one solves a pragmatic problem, of only defragmenting
the files that need it. Whereas the third party defragmenter, will
make your drive look "pretty" (in the on-screen map). And that's worth
an extra $39.95.

Paul
Click to expand...

Be fair! One I tried recently - freeware - Auslogics Disk Defrag - also
has that option of not defragging fragments larger than a given size,
and has a range of about half a dozen sizes you can choose (as well as
not, i. e. fill defrag). No need to spend 40 bucks.
 
C

choro

I don't like to stress drives more than necessary.
Defrag gets them real hot and noisy.
I don't bother any more with the 3 gb/sec black drives.
Click to expand...

"Bin tinking" -- If I keep adding bits to a file and resaving it over
and over again and again it adds up to a defragged file of a fairly
large file. So I tried opening one such file and resaving it under a
different filename and deleted the older version. File size immediately
went down by a factor of several times.

Isn't that what defragging actually does? Bit like defrocking a wench!
(de-jeansing just doesn't sound right, does it?) ;-)
-- choro
 
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