Aaron1204

what does this actually do? will it make much difference to the performance/health of the pc?

I know you should do it, but wondered how essential it is?

DanRSturbo

Just basically re-arranges your files and frees up a bit of disk space. Unless running XP or 2000, run Disk Defragmenter in Safe Mode

rs shawn

It tidies up your disk. As Dan put..re-arranges files so that they are all together & 'supposedly' speeds up the machine as it looks at which programs you use the most & puts them 'at the front' so it is easier for the computer to find them. It finds all the free space in the disk & moves it all to the same place. Can take a while for it to complete tho.

Martin-Hadland

iTrader: (2)

tried to do mine several times but it wont do it!

Martyn

Not strictly true.....its main task is to put data back together. When you have a clean drive it will save any data just using blocks that follow on from each other and everything is fine. But soon as u delete something it makes a gap where that data was, so next time it saves something it fills in that gap and then puts the rest in the next available gap. So on and on that goes till everything is dotted around (ie defragmented).
Thus, when you next try to retreive that data the harddisk heads have to dart around to the various places it has saved it to, therefore taking longer.
When you defrag it joins the data all back together so the heads can read it all in one go without having to move all over the place to get it, which obviously speeds things up.
You will only really get a noticable difference if it has not be deffragged for a long time or if you have been moving/deleting alot of data.

You dont strictly have to run it in safe mode if you dont have xp, all you have to do is make sure no programs or processes are running that will access the drive, or that will make the defrag restart. IE. things like screensavers when they kick in.

Hopefully that makes sense for the non technical people

Billabong

What operating system, Martin? You really need to set the defrag going and leave the PC alone until it's complete. Sometimes helps to make sure any screen savers are turned off too.

Files become fragmented (i.e. split into many smaller pieces) and are placed all over the disk, defragmenting 'stitches' the files back together so that when accessing a file, the OS doesn't need to fetch a part from here, there and everywhere.

EDIT - must remember to hit refresh before starting a reply

Iain Mac

I installed Norton Utilities last night and used it to Optimise the disk.

According to the handbook, this doesn't just defrag, but moves frequently used data to the front, leaves free space for system files etc to grow into, and other witchcraft that I don't understand.

Does seem a little quicker now.

Aaron1204

Hiya mate, just reading the replies through and realised that although i turned off all the stuff that send it into system standby or hibernate mode, I didn't turn off the screensaver!! Its the work pc, and i started it last night for it to run thorugh to this morning, and i ain't there this morning! I told me boss to check it out when he goes in , but he won't have a clue if it's completed or not
So does that mean it won't have worked because of the screensaver still being on?

Climates change quicker than that thing, will i have to start again d'ya reckon?

Smit

iTrader: (5)

with the screensaver on the program will just freeze...it won't work!

Martyn

If its not on xp the screen saver will cause the defrag to restart.
On non xp systems at the start of the defrag it maps the drive, then if that map changes at any point during the defrag (ie anything that accesses the drive such as the screen saver) it will restart everytime it detects the map has changed and just get stuck in a loop till you hit stop it!

Aaron1204

it is on xp pro, does that mean it will be ok? Think the 'turn monitor off' thing was switched on aswell

Martyn

You can happily run defrag on xp and use the pc normally without it restarting, but it can obviously take longer if u are moving the data round as it tries to do it too lol

Aaron1204

excellent, thats what i wanted to hear

Thanks martyn, hopefully it'll be ok then on monday, otherwise i'll throw the damn thing outta the 1st floor window!