defrag every day!

[Jerry]

I'm running XP home edition SP1. I cannot figure out why
I have to defrag this machine every day! I have this
machine networked via a wireless system, its connected
directly to the hub. I can't figure out if its a bad HD
or the fact I back up files to a second HD.

[Rob Schneider]

Jerry wrote:
> I'm running XP home edition SP1. I cannot figure out why
> I have to defrag this machine every day! I have this
> machine networked via a wireless system, its connected
> directly to the hub. I can't figure out if its a bad HD
> or the fact I back up files to a second HD.

What is it which is making you think you must do this?

[Ken Blake]

"Jerry" > wrote in message
...

> I'm running XP home edition SP1. I cannot figure out why
> I have to defrag this machine every day!


Have to? What makes you think you have to? It's almost certainly
overkill.

You should defrag on whatever frequency works to speed up your
computer. Once a month or so is adequate for most people, and
it's hard to imagine anyone needing to do it more often than once
a week.

--
Ken Blake
Please reply to the newsgroup



> I have this
> machine networked via a wireless system, its connected
> directly to the hub. I can't figure out if its a bad HD
> or the fact I back up files to a second HD.

[Amethyst]

Ken Blake wrote:
> "Jerry" > wrote in message
> ...
>
>> I'm running XP home edition SP1. I cannot figure out why
>> I have to defrag this machine every day!
>
>
> Have to? What makes you think you have to? It's almost certainly
> overkill.
>
> You should defrag on whatever frequency works to speed up your
> computer. Once a month or so is adequate for most people, and
> it's hard to imagine anyone needing to do it more often than once
> a week.
>

Not to mention the fact that it will considerably shorten the life of your
disk.

--�
Cassandra
Card carrying member of the Fresh Start Club 'The Undead Are People Too!'

Reply address is fake. Please send all praise, abuse, insults, bequests
of £1million to cassandra (at) craigy34 (dot) freeserve (dot) co (dot)
uk. Change the obvious to the obvious.
Private requests for assistance will not be acknowledged. Please post all
correspondence to the group so that all may benefit. Thank you.

[Jerry]

I'm running Norton System Works 2003, the alarm is set at
90% and its nearly every time I use this computer I have
to degrag. A friend of mine is suspicious of the HD
failing.

>-----Original Message-----
>Jerry wrote:
>> I'm running XP home edition SP1. I cannot figure out
why
>> I have to defrag this machine every day! I have this
>> machine networked via a wireless system, its connected
>> directly to the hub. I can't figure out if its a bad
HD
>> or the fact I back up files to a second HD.
>
>What is it which is making you think you must do this?
>
>.
>

[Ken Blake]

"Jerry" > wrote in message
...

> I'm running Norton System Works 2003, the alarm is set at
> 90% and its nearly every time I use this computer I have
> to degrag.


No you don't. You should defrag only when doing so results in a
speedup your computer. Do you notice a speedup after defragging?
If not, you didn't need to have done it.

Defragging any more often is a waste of time, despite what Norton
says. It's almost guaranteed to cost you more time to defrag than
the tiny amount of time having defragged may save you. Once a
month is more likely good enough for you.

Turn off Norton's defrag alarm, which isn't helping you. As a
matter of fact, I would turn off all of Norton's alarms, and not
run Norton in the background at all. Whatever value Norton's
utilities have is in using them only when you need them.

--
Ken Blake
Please reply to the newsgroup

[Kent W. England [MVP]]

If your disk is near full, System Restore daily restore points will be
heavily fragmented. Defragging these files won't result in any
performance improvement, since they are recovery files.

Free up some more disk space, reduce the space allotted to System
Restore, and check Norton details to see if all the files found are in
the SVI folder.

--
Kent W. England, Microsoft MVP for Windows



"Jerry" > wrote in
message ...

> I'm running Norton System Works 2003, the alarm is set at
> 90% and its nearly every time I use this computer I have
> to degrag. A friend of mine is suspicious of the HD
> failing.
>
> >-----Original Message-----
> >Jerry wrote:
> >> I'm running XP home edition SP1. I cannot figure out
> why
> >> I have to defrag this machine every day! I have this
> >> machine networked via a wireless system, its connected
> >> directly to the hub. I can't figure out if its a bad
> HD
> >> or the fact I back up files to a second HD.
> >
> >What is it which is making you think you must do this?
> >
> >.
> >

[Amethyst]

Jerry wrote:
> I'm running Norton System Works 2003, the alarm is set at
> 90% and its nearly every time I use this computer I have
> to degrag. A friend of mine is suspicious of the HD
> failing.

Well there you are you see! You didn't tell us you were running garbageware.
Norton Simply Worthless is a system hog and causes at least twice as many
problems as it claims to fix!

Your friend's right - you defrag on a daily basis and you /will/ have a
failing hard drive! Uninstall it - you don't need it. Those alarms are
nearly always false - SW is NEVER accurate.



--
Cassandra
Card carrying member of the Fresh Start Club 'The Undead Are People Too!'

Reply address is fake. Please send all praise, abuse, insults, bequests
of £1million to cassandra (at) craigy34 (dot) freeserve (dot) co (dot)
uk. Change the obvious to the obvious.
Private requests for assistance will not be acknowledged. Please post all
correspondence to the group so that all may benefit. Thank you.

[baker]

I defrag once a week because I am a heavy computer user. I use
Diskeeper. I also use Nortons but I do not let it automatically defrag.
It is not necessary and it is time consuming. Since all my programs
other than WinXP and Office XP are on Drive D, I only defrag Drive C
maybe once a month. This is an advantage of partioning large drives. :-)

[David]

>
>No you don't. You should defrag only when doing so results in a
>speedup your computer. Do you notice a speedup after defragging?
>If not, you didn't need to have done it.
>
>Defragging any more often is a waste of time, despite what Norton
>says. It's almost guaranteed to cost you more time to defrag than
>the tiny amount of time having defragged may save you. Once a
>month is more likely good enough for you.


I understand that XP with the NTFS file system, doesn't need to be
defragged as often as Win9x. That the Journaling systemmanaged drive
space better.

Can anyone confirm?


David

"Stupdity should hurt."

[Jerry]

Thanks everyone for responding and helping. I don't use
system restore, its disabled. A friend of mine is
suspicious of the NTFS file system. What do you guys use?
NTFS or FAT32? I have an IBM 20GB HD.

>-----Original Message-----
>If your disk is near full, System Restore daily restore
points will be
>heavily fragmented. Defragging these files won't result
in any
>performance improvement, since they are recovery files.
>
>Free up some more disk space, reduce the space allotted
to System
>Restore, and check Norton details to see if all the
files found are in
>the SVI folder.
>
>--
>Kent W. England, Microsoft MVP for Windows
>
>
>
>"Jerry" > wrote in
>message ...
>
>> I'm running Norton System Works 2003, the alarm is set
at
>> 90% and its nearly every time I use this computer I
have
>> to degrag. A friend of mine is suspicious of the HD
>> failing.
>>
>> >-----Original Message-----
>> >Jerry wrote:
>> >> I'm running XP home edition SP1. I cannot figure out
>> why
>> >> I have to defrag this machine every day! I have this
>> >> machine networked via a wireless system, its
connected
>> >> directly to the hub. I can't figure out if its a bad
>> HD
>> >> or the fact I back up files to a second HD.
>> >
>> >What is it which is making you think you must do this?
>> >
>> >.
>> >
>
>.
>

[Ronnie Vernon MVP]

Jerry wrote:
> Thanks everyone for responding and helping. I don't use
> system restore, its disabled. A friend of mine is
> suspicious of the NTFS file system. What do you guys use?
> NTFS or FAT32? I have an IBM 20GB HD.
>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> If your disk is near full, System Restore daily restore points will
>> be heavily fragmented. Defragging these files won't result in any
>> performance improvement, since they are recovery files.
>>
>> Free up some more disk space, reduce the space allotted to System
>> Restore, and check Norton details to see if all the files found are
>> in the SVI folder.
>>
>> --
>> Kent W. England, Microsoft MVP for Windows
>>
>>
>>
>> "Jerry" > wrote in
>> message ...
>>
>>> I'm running Norton System Works 2003, the alarm is set at
>>> 90% and its nearly every time I use this computer I have
>>> to degrag. A friend of mine is suspicious of the HD
>>> failing.
>>>
>>>> -----Original Message-----
>>>> Jerry wrote:
>>>>> I'm running XP home edition SP1. I cannot figure out why
>>>>> I have to defrag this machine every day! I have this
>>>>> machine networked via a wireless system, its connected
>>>>> directly to the hub. I can't figure out if its a bad HD
>>>>> or the fact I back up files to a second HD.
>>>>
>>>> What is it which is making you think you must do this?
>>>>
>>>> .
>>>>
>>
>> .

Suspicious? NTFS is much more stable and robust than the FAT32 file system.
Here are some links for your friend to read.

NTFS and Windows XP:
http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/hwdev/tech/storage/ntfs-preinstall.mspx

Limitations of the FAT32 File System in Windows XP:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;314463



--
Ronnie Vernon
Microsoft MVP
Windows Shell/User
Please reply only to the newsgroup so all may benefit.
Unsolicited e-mail is not answered.

For a better way to access these newsgroups look here:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/using/newsgroups/setup.asp

[Vaughn McMillan - Executive Software]

On Sat, 21 Jun 2003 19:05:44 +0100, "Amethyst" >
wrote:

>
>Not to mention the fact that it will considerably shorten the life of your
>disk.
>
>--?
>Cassandra
>

And your statement is based on what fact?

I agree that daily defragging is often overkill, especially on a
standalone machine (and this is coming from someone in the defragger
business). However, I've not seen any reputable data indicating
defragmentation shortens the life of disk drives (and I've been in the
defrag business for a dozen years or so).

If you have any data to back up your claim I'd be very interested in
reading it.

Regards -

Vaughn McMillan
Executive Software