A tip to quickly defrag a DATA hdd.

[xtreme2k]

I know this is an old tip from the good old NT defragging 'procedure' but it works well. If you got a non-bootable drive (DATA drives) you want to defrag, and you got a SPARE drive with free space exceeding the used space on that DATA drive you wana defrag, it might be MUCH quicker to MOVE everything from that drive to the empty drive, and back.

To 'defrag' my old 20GB using this method, it takes me just abit less than 10 minutes. Usually this will take me a few hours.

EDIT: The drive MUST NOT contain any OSes or boot partitions, as some system files and the MBR will NOT be copied. You need to 'clone' the drive for those. But will cloning defrag?

 

[bacillus]

can I take it that you don't use norton's speed disk then?

 

[xtreme2k]

I did try it
but it was hell slow compared to this

 

[AndyHui]

Yup...that is a good tip and it does work well for WinNT/Win2K.

Doesn't work for Win9x because of the way it copies things though.

 

[duragezic]

Aren't the files fragmented? (sorry I don't know how this stuff works) And doesn't the defrag program move the files based on use?

 

[mastertech01]

Just how do you copy EVERYTHING to the other drive? Very interesting..

 

[xtreme2k]

<< Yup...that is a good tip and it does work well for WinNT/Win2K.

Doesn't work for Win9x because of the way it copies things though. >>



can you elaborate on that?

 

[xtreme2k]

<< Just how do you copy EVERYTHING to the other drive? Very interesting.. >>



select ALL the files/dir, and move them to the other drives.

 

[mastertech01]

Simple as that?.. sheesh Im going to give it a try..Ill try anything at least once.. thanks..

 

[BurntKooshie]

Just make sure that all files are visible (like systems files/folders, etc.) That way EVERYTHING gets copied, not just that which is visible, because if you don't have the system files/folders visible, they won't be selected in the &quot;select all&quot; command.

 

[bacillus]

<< ..Ill try anything at least once >>


:Q

 

[mastertech01]

Thanks BurntKooshie

 

[xtreme2k]

<< Aren't the files fragmented? (sorry I don't know how this stuff works) And doesn't the defrag program move the files based on use? >>



When the files are moved to the empty drive, it will start writing from the start of the drive and writes all files in a sequential order, on the other drive, the data should be all defragmented. Now move the files back to the original drive(should be empty now) and it will write in the sequential order again. There you get a defragged drive.

Thanks BurntKooshie for pointing this out. ALL (I mean ALL) THE FILES MUST be selected.

 

[CTho9305]

are you sure that works? aren't some files in use and therefore locked from reading? Or just from writes? b/c as stuff gets downloaded, its size is reported as 0 and you can't even use DOS's &quot;type&quot; command to view it... but that only happens sometimes, other programs dont seem to lock in this way

 

[xtreme2k]

<< are you sure that works? aren't some files in use and therefore locked from reading? Or just from writes? b/c as stuff gets downloaded, its size is reported as 0 and you can't even use DOS's &quot;type&quot; command to view it... but that only happens sometimes, other programs dont seem to lock in this way >>



If you got a brain you will only do this when all your data files are NOT IN USE.

 

[Need4Speed]

in NT the ntuser.dat file can't be moved...how do u get around this?

 

[duragezic]

<< If you got a non-bootable drive (data drives) you want to defrag >>

 

[xtreme2k]

<< in NT the ntuser.dat file can't be moved...how do u get around this? >>



fuk. perfect example of someone didnt read what I say.

didnt 'non-bootable drive (data drives)' mean something to you?

 

[BurntKooshie]

Time to edit the first post to make that clear.
BTW -- any idea when geekcode will be updated? It's 5 years old now . It was supposed to be revamped last year, but still nothing...

 

[xtreme2k]

I actually forgot about the geek code all together

 

[Need4Speed]

you know what? you need the chill the 'fuk' out. like you never missed something when you read it. oh i forget you must be friggen perfect....