How Often Disk Defrag

In ,
Bob I wrote:
On 3/11/2012 11:18 AM, joshuareen wrote:
Karen F wrote on 03/04/2012 08:09 ET :
How often should you use Disk Defrag? I now have mine set for
once a month. Thanks.

Yes, it is well to defrag every month.

You shouldn't defrag SSD at all.

Who said anything about defragging a SSD, Bob?

--
Bill
Gateway M465e ('06 era) - OE-QuoteFix v1.19.2
Centrino Core Duo T2400 1.83GHz - 2GB - Windows XP SP3

On Mon, 12 Mar 2012 10:28:13 +0000, Stephen Wolstenholme wrote:

On Sun, 11 Mar 2012 11:41:42 -0700, Ken Blake
wrote:

On Sun, 11 Mar 2012 11:18:10 -0500, joshuareen
wrote:

Karen F wrote on 03/04/2012 08:09 ET :
How often should you use Disk Defrag? I now have mine set for
once a month. Thanks.

Yes, it is well to defrag every month.





I completely disagree. First, in Windows 7, defragging is almost
never needed.

Well MSFT clearly disagree with you as regular defrag is setup by
default.


I checked a W7 system yesterday. It has been in use as a server for
over a year and had never been defragmented. Analyse returned 3%
fragmented on the main disc.

Servers probably don't disturb the main volume/drive much, desktop
workstations with users that install/try/remove lots of software
will get their disks fragmented pretty soon.

On 3/12/2012 1:06 PM, BillW50 wrote:
In ,
Bob I wrote:
On 3/11/2012 11:18 AM, joshuareen wrote:
Karen F wrote on 03/04/2012 08:09 ET :
How often should you use Disk Defrag? I now have mine set for
once a month. Thanks.

Yes, it is well to defrag every month.

You shouldn't defrag SSD at all.

Who said anything about defragging a SSD, Bob?


Bob did.

--
Alias

On 12/03/2012 8:11 AM, mechanic wrote:
On Mon, 12 Mar 2012 10:28:13 +0000, Stephen Wolstenholme wrote:

On Sun, 11 Mar 2012 11:41:42 -0700, Ken
wrote:

On Sun, 11 Mar 2012 11:18:10 -0500, joshuareen wrote:
I completely disagree. First, in Windows 7, defragging is almost
never needed.

Well MSFT clearly disagree with you as regular defrag is setup by
default.


I checked a W7 system yesterday. It has been in use as a server for
over a year and had never been defragmented. Analyse returned 3%
fragmented on the main disc.

Servers probably don't disturb the main volume/drive much, desktop
workstations with users that install/try/remove lots of software
will get their disks fragmented pretty soon.

Not to mention all the background creation of temporary files, all of
which are deleted eventually (depending on cache size limits, etc.) And
surprise, surprise, people do from time to time clean up Inboxes,
folders, etc, all of which releases sectors. Fragmentation is inevitable
on single-user systems.

Time to start a discussion on the bad effects of fragmentation?

I think not. ;-)

Best,
wolf K.

On Mon, 12 Mar 2012 12:11:31 +0000, mechanic
wrote:

On Mon, 12 Mar 2012 10:28:13 +0000, Stephen Wolstenholme wrote:

On Sun, 11 Mar 2012 11:41:42 -0700, Ken Blake
wrote:

On Sun, 11 Mar 2012 11:18:10 -0500, joshuareen
wrote:

Karen F wrote on 03/04/2012 08:09 ET :
How often should you use Disk Defrag? I now have mine set for
once a month. Thanks.

Yes, it is well to defrag every month.





I completely disagree. First, in Windows 7, defragging is almost
never needed.

Well MSFT clearly disagree with you as regular defrag is setup by
default.


You are either misunderstanding what I meant or I expressed myself
poorly. What I mean is that manual defragging, over and above what is
dome automatically, is almost never needed.

On 3/11/2012, Stefan Patric posted:
On Sun, 11 Mar 2012 16:45:14 -0400, James Silverton wrote:

On 3/11/2012 2:04 PM, Stefan Patric wrote:
On Sun, 11 Mar 2012 11:18:10 -0500, joshuareen wrote:

Karen F wrote on 03/04/2012 08:09 ET :
How often should you use Disk Defrag? I now have mine set for once
a month. Thanks.

Yes, it is well to defrag every month.

Such an absolute statement is misleading. If a drive doesn't need
defragging, whether it's been a month or several since the last one,
why defrag it? And overly defragging puts extra wear and tear on the
drive, too. Plus, it's a waste of time.

Stef

I allow automatic defragmenting once a week and that seems to work well.
Currently, the disk is marked as 0% fragmented.

Work well how? How fragmented can a drive get in a week? Or is this
some kind of obsessive-compulsive thing you have? ;-)

Stef

In spite of your remark elsewhere about wear and tear, I suspect that
the weekly defragging is harmless, so I'd let those who feel better
about it just go on doing it.

Since I don't bother (unless Windows is doing it behind my back), at
least it's harmless here :-)

--
Gene E. Bloch (Stumbling Bloch)

On 3/12/2012, Gene E. Bloch posted:
On 3/11/2012, Stefan Patric posted:
On Sun, 11 Mar 2012 16:45:14 -0400, James Silverton wrote:

On 3/11/2012 2:04 PM, Stefan Patric wrote:
On Sun, 11 Mar 2012 11:18:10 -0500, joshuareen wrote:

Karen F wrote on 03/04/2012 08:09 ET :
How often should you use Disk Defrag? I now have mine set for once
a month. Thanks.

Yes, it is well to defrag every month.

Such an absolute statement is misleading. If a drive doesn't need
defragging, whether it's been a month or several since the last one,
why defrag it? And overly defragging puts extra wear and tear on the
drive, too. Plus, it's a waste of time.

Stef

I allow automatic defragmenting once a week and that seems to work well.
Currently, the disk is marked as 0% fragmented.

Work well how? How fragmented can a drive get in a week? Or is this some
kind of obsessive-compulsive thing you have? ;-)

Stef

In spite of your remark elsewhere about wear and tear, I suspect that the
weekly defragging is harmless, so I'd let those who feel better about it just
go on doing it.

Since I don't bother (unless Windows is doing it behind my back), at least
it's harmless here :-)

I looked at my Services. Disk Defragmenter is set to run Manually and
is currently stopped. FWIW...

--
Gene E. Bloch (Stumbling Bloch)

On Mon, 12 Mar 2012 11:42:35 -0700, Gene E. Bloch
wrote:


In spite of your remark elsewhere about wear and tear, I suspect that
the weekly defragging is harmless, so I'd let those who feel better
about it just go on doing it.



I agree. I think it's hardly ever needed, but on the other hand it
doesn't hurt to do it.

BillW50 wrote:

Bob I wrote:

You shouldn't defrag SSD at all.

Who said anything about defragging a SSD, Bob?

Who said the OP (Karen) is defragging an HDD, Bill?

Karen didn't say what type of device she is defragging. Most of us
*assumed* she is doing it on a magnetic hard disk. I figure Bob's post
was just a warning *in case* Karen had an SSD or considering it for
later addition. For what little was stated in Karen's post, she could
be defragging a floppy, a USB thumb flash drive, an emulated CD/DVD
drive that loads an .iso image, or even an emulated hard disk inside a
virtual machine. Karen didn't say WHAT is getting defragged.

After over a week of absence, defragging really wasn't an important
issue for Karen. Oh well, it gave us here a chance to argue the
benefits or not along with the perceived need for frequency.

Ken Blake wrote:
On Mon, 12 Mar 2012 11:42:35 -0700, Gene E. Bloch
wrote:

In spite of your remark elsewhere about wear and tear, I suspect that
the weekly defragging is harmless, so I'd let those who feel better
about it just go on doing it.


I agree. I think it's hardly ever needed, but on the other hand it
doesn't hurt to do it.


Considering the relatively short runtime seen with the built-in
one, I don't think it matters too much.

Paul

On Sun, 11 Mar 2012 11:18:10 -0500, joshuareen wrote:

Karen F wrote on 03/04/2012 08:09 ET :
How often should you use Disk Defrag? I now have mine set for once a
month. Thanks.

Yes, it is well to defrag every month.

Did you even read the discussion? Perhaps, rather than just make a
bald statement, you might explain why you disagree with quite a few
of us. We might all learn something from the discussion.

--
Stan Brown, Oak Road Systems, Tompkins County, New York, USA
http://OakRoadSystems.com
Shikata ga nai...

On Mon, 12 Mar 2012 12:11:31 +0000, mechanic wrote:
On Mon, 12 Mar 2012 10:28:13 +0000, Stephen Wolstenholme wrote:

[quoted text muted]


I completely disagree. First, in Windows 7, defragging is almost
never needed.

Well MSFT clearly disagree with you as regular defrag is setup by
default.

Where do you get that? It certainly was not set up by default on my
system.



--
Stan Brown, Oak Road Systems, Tompkins County, New York, USA
http://OakRoadSystems.com
Shikata ga nai...

On Mon, 12 Mar 2012 22:51:28 -0400, Stan Brown
wrote:

On Mon, 12 Mar 2012 12:11:31 +0000, mechanic wrote:
On Mon, 12 Mar 2012 10:28:13 +0000, Stephen Wolstenholme wrote:

[quoted text muted]


I completely disagree. First, in Windows 7, defragging is almost
never needed.

Well MSFT clearly disagree with you as regular defrag is setup by
default.

Where do you get that? It certainly was not set up by default on my
system.

I have a fresh install of Win 7 Ultimate x64 full retail here and
defrag is scheduled to run every Wednesday morning at 1:00 AM. It's in
Scheduled Tasks, along with a bunch of other stuff that I didn't put
there.

--

Char Jackson

In article ,
lid says...

On Mon, 12 Mar 2012 22:51:28 -0400, Stan Brown
wrote:

On Mon, 12 Mar 2012 12:11:31 +0000, mechanic wrote:
On Mon, 12 Mar 2012 10:28:13 +0000, Stephen Wolstenholme wrote:

[quoted text muted]


I completely disagree. First, in Windows 7, defragging is almost
never needed.

Well MSFT clearly disagree with you as regular defrag is setup by
default.

Where do you get that? It certainly was not set up by default on my
system.

I have a fresh install of Win 7 Ultimate x64 full retail here and
defrag is scheduled to run every Wednesday morning at 1:00 AM. It's in
Scheduled Tasks, along with a bunch of other stuff that I didn't put
there.

I have the same task for the same day/time, and have seen it on clean
installs of Win7 Pro x86 OEM, Pro x64 OEM, and Enterprise x64.

--
Zaphod

Vell, Zaphod's just zis guy, ya know? - Gag Halfrunt

On 3/13/2012, Zaphod Beeblebrox posted:
In article ,
lid says...

On Mon, 12 Mar 2012 22:51:28 -0400, Stan Brown
wrote:

On Mon, 12 Mar 2012 12:11:31 +0000, mechanic wrote:
On Mon, 12 Mar 2012 10:28:13 +0000, Stephen Wolstenholme wrote:

[quoted text muted]


I completely disagree. First, in Windows 7, defragging is almost
never needed.

Well MSFT clearly disagree with you as regular defrag is setup by
default.

Where do you get that? It certainly was not set up by default on my
system.

I have a fresh install of Win 7 Ultimate x64 full retail here and
defrag is scheduled to run every Wednesday morning at 1:00 AM. It's in
Scheduled Tasks, along with a bunch of other stuff that I didn't put
there.

I have the same task for the same day/time, and have seen it on clean
installs of Win7 Pro x86 OEM, Pro x64 OEM, and Enterprise x64.

I said in another post that on my computer, Defrag as a service is set
to Manual start and isn't running (i.e., wasn't running when I looked).
I thought it meant it wasn't happening here.

But the above remarks made me look at Task Scheduler, and lo!, Defrag
is in there, scheduled to run at 1:00 AM every Wednesday of every Week.
It last ran at 3/07/2012 19:04:43, according to the entry in the
Scheduler.

Fooled again by Windows...

--
Gene E. Bloch (Stumbling Bloch)