Disk Defragment?

[blue_chi]

How often should a hard drive be defragmented? and is there a limit for it, or should a person just defragment it as often as possible?

[DuXcK]

I never defragmented my PC.

Whats the use of defragmanting the PC to start with? <img src="/threads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Why not formating the PC instead of defragmanting it ?

[Incubus1980]

there is no limit to how many times you can defrag your drive. but i think you should like do it once in a while. it will help your programs run faster. basically reducing the disk seek time. coz defrag arranges the clusters making easier and faster to find your stuff on the drive and freeing up extra space. but it does take alot of time to defrag a hard drive these days. if you got lots of stuff on it.

[blue_chi]

Duxck, Defragmentaing the hard drive can make your PC run faster by arranging the data, Formating the hard drive deletes all the data in it.

I know that I have to do it once in a while, but what I really want to know is HOW OFTEN, once in a week, or once in a month, or after installing or deleting a program?

[Xara]

every thursday <img src="/threads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

[Incubus1980]

hahhaha "every thursday" wow....
no try this
Best practices

1) Analyzing before defragmenting

Analyze volumes before defragmenting them. After analyzing a volume, a dialog box tells you the percentage of fragmented files and folders on the volume and recommends whether to defragment the volume. Analyze volumes regularly and defragment them only when Disk Defragmenter recommends it. A good guideline is to analyze volumes at least once a week. If you seldom need to defragment volumes, analyze volumes monthly instead of weekly.

2) Analyzing after large numbers of files are added

Volumes might become excessively fragmented when users add a large number of files or folders, so be sure to analyze volumes after this happens. Generally, volumes on busy file servers should be defragmented more often than those on single-user workstations.

3)Ensure that your disk has at least 15% free space

A volume must have at least 15% free space for Disk Defragmenter to completely and adequately defragment it. Disk Defragmenter uses this space as a sorting area for file fragments. If a volume has less than 15% free space, Disk Defragmenter will only partially defragment it. To increase the free space on a volume, delete unneeded files or move them to another disk.

4)Defragmenting during low-usage periods

Defragment file server volumes during low-volume usage periods to minimize the effect that the defragmentation process has on file server performance. The time that Disk Defragmenter takes to defragment a volume depends on several factors, including the size of the volume, the number of files on the volume, the number of fragmented files, and available system resources.

5) Defragmenting after installing software or installing Windows

Defragment volumes after installing software or after performing an upgrade or clean install of Windows. Volumes often become fragmented after installing software, so running Disk Defragmenter helps to ensure the best file system performance.

[blue_chi]

OK, thats cool!

[phatguy88]

if you have money to spend, buy (or download) diskeeper.
diskeeper is a defragmenting program that analyzes
and defragments in about an hour or so. its awesome.
my computer's fragmentation level was 81%!!!! now
it is at a good 0.