Are large files magnets for fragmentation?

[StageLeft]

Win XP. I am trying to defrag and finding that I'm stuck with 10/20 on my analyze. I have about 7 files that can't be defragged. One is a 939 meg file related to HL2. The rest are huge 1.5 gig files. Defrager says that they "can't be defragged". I'm also finding my computer to be really choppy - something one with a badly fragged drive would be. I'm burning these to dvd, then will delete, but what's the deal? cheers!

 

[spyordie007]

For a file to be defragged there has to be enough space on the HD for the system to completely move it to a differant area; as your drive gets closer to full it will get harder and harder for the defrag utility to defragment large files.

Also if a file is locked the defrag utility wont be able to move it around; so even if you have enough space you can run into situations where it cannot defrag the file because it cant access it.

Not that it's going to matter the majority of the time. As long as the file isnt in a ton of fragments (hundereds+) than you shouldnt see performance drops when reading the file. If your system were pulling the whole file it's more likely that your biggest performance hit is when the drive gets I/O requests from other applications (introducing extra seeks).

 

[StageLeft]

The files are in lots of fragments 🙂 I have a 1.37 gig file that's in 3000+ fragments. I've got 40 gigs of free space and this is on a fresh boot that it's doing this. I just burned and kill three of the worst offenders 🙂

I can get rid of this worst offender, but two of the huge HL2 files are pretty badly fragmented as well, though it's under 1 thousand. Problem is I think they are the cause for my jumpy frames in HL2, since it can't be my vid or ram.

Would copying them then deleting the originals (then move copied back) be of any use? OK that worked with my 1.37. I'm a bit hesitant to do it with HL2. Is there any encryption crap that may go wrong with it? I don't fancy having to reinstall 🙂

 

[StageLeft]

OK I killed the files after copying, and fragmentation is down, but now they still have SOME fragmentation, and other large files on the HD are now showing up as fragmented. It's rather upsetting! 😛

 

[Nothinman]

Stop worrying about fragmentation and use the computer.

 

[StageLeft]

Originally posted by: Nothinman
Stop worrying about fragmentation and use the computer.

I wouldn't worry about it but HL2 is seriously jerking around as it grabs crap from the HD. It's causing a definite usability issue.

 

[Spencer278]

Originally posted by: Skoorb

Originally posted by: Nothinman
Stop worrying about fragmentation and use the computer.

I wouldn't worry about it but HL2 is seriously jerking around as it grabs crap from the HD. It's causing a definite usability issue.

HL2 I would assume would pre load any files it needs into ram so it shouldn't matter if it fragmented.

 

[StageLeft]

Originally posted by: Spencer278

Originally posted by: Skoorb

Originally posted by: Nothinman
Stop worrying about fragmentation and use the computer.

I wouldn't worry about it but HL2 is seriously jerking around as it grabs crap from the HD. It's causing a definite usability issue.

HL2 I would assume would pre load any files it needs into ram so it shouldn't matter if it fragmented.

One would hope, but these files are a gig each, and I have only 512 ram 🙂

 

[Spencer278]

Originally posted by: Skoorb

Originally posted by: Spencer278

Originally posted by: Skoorb

Originally posted by: Nothinman
Stop worrying about fragmentation and use the computer.

I wouldn't worry about it but HL2 is seriously jerking around as it grabs crap from the HD. It's causing a definite usability issue.

HL2 I would assume would pre load any files it needs into ram so it shouldn't matter if it fragmented.

One would hope, but these files are a gig each, and I have only 512 ram 🙂

Thats what the swap file is for.

 

[Nothinman]

I wouldn't worry about it but HL2 is seriously jerking around as it grabs crap from the HD. It's causing a definite usability issue.

Most likely you just need more memory or possibly turn things down on HL2. I've played HL2 on my friend's machine and it takes forever to load but once it loads it runs fine, if you're jerking in mid game it means you don't have enough memory and fragmentation of HL2's datafiles is the least of your worries.

 

[StageLeft]

Originally posted by: Spencer278

Originally posted by: Skoorb

Originally posted by: Spencer278

Originally posted by: Skoorb

Originally posted by: Nothinman
Stop worrying about fragmentation and use the computer.

I wouldn't worry about it but HL2 is seriously jerking around as it grabs crap from the HD. It's causing a definite usability issue.

HL2 I would assume would pre load any files it needs into ram so it shouldn't matter if it fragmented.

One would hope, but these files are a gig each, and I have only 512 ram 🙂

Thats what the swap file is for.

Well dug gum, something aint' right! This comp is choppy with HL2, and it can't be my hardware right now, because I've got low settings running. It's cranking out serious frame rates but every once in a while it chugs for a split few seconds, and degrfragger says that the HL2 files are fragged up. The original two are now no longer "fraged" and it's just the sounds file. I wonder if this is the cause of the audio stuttering some people have.

 

[StageLeft]

Originally posted by: Nothinman

I wouldn't worry about it but HL2 is seriously jerking around as it grabs crap from the HD. It's causing a definite usability issue.

Most likely you just need more memory or possibly turn things down on HL2. I've played HL2 on my friend's machine and it takes forever to load but once it loads it runs fine, if you're jerking in mid game it means you don't have enough memory and fragmentation of HL2's datafiles is the least of your worries.

You may be right. In fact I have another 512 stick that will get to me tomorrow, bringing me to a gig, but surely people with the "recommended" 512 megs aren't running into this?

 

[Nothinman]

You may be right. In fact I have another 512 stick that will get to me tomorrow, bringing me to a gig, but surely people with the "recommended" 512 megs aren't running into this?

No idea, I havn't used a machine with just 512M in a while, even my notebook has a gig of memory.

 

[MegaWorks]

Nothinman you don't defragment your computer?

 

[Nothinman]

Nothinman you don't defragment your computer?

Not really, all my systems run Linux and the filesystems for Linux are smart in that regard. The only time I ever even think about it is when I see a thread like this. Sure some of my filesytems could probably use it, but the performance difference it makes is so small that I don't care.

 

[kuljc]

hey just checking... but since you havn't listed your specs, I'm assuming you're comp is actually fit to run HL2?

Just wondering b/c (you'll get a kick out of this one):
dood walks into best buy (oh the memories), and wants the cheapest fing comp... which is of course some crappy CELERON, w/ onboard everything. Of course dood wants to play I can't remember what game, KOTOR (something that had just come out at that time). Of course a different comp is recomened but he is a cheap a$$ and buys the cheap one.

Comes in 2 days later, my friend points him out and tells me the story above, saying his having a problem runnin the game cause it jerks and was wondering if he should upgrade the ram to a gig (he was seriously debating. you could see the sweat). I ask him what comp did you get... yeah well he shows me that piece and i laugh in his face, saying they warned you and told you it wouldn't work.

 

[biostud]

write protect the 4 autosave files in your HL-2 savegame directory, and be a happy gamer 🙂

 

[aircooled]

I rarely defrag XP. even if it needs it I don't "feel" the difference like back in the 9x days...

 

[StageLeft]

Originally posted by: kuljc
hey just checking... but since you havn't listed your specs, I'm assuming you're comp is actually fit to run HL2?

Just wondering b/c (you'll get a kick out of this one):
dood walks into best buy (oh the memories), and wants the cheapest fing comp... which is of course some crappy CELERON, w/ onboard everything. Of course dood wants to play I can't remember what game, KOTOR (something that had just come out at that time). Of course a different comp is recomened but he is a cheap a$$ and buys the cheap one.

Comes in 2 days later, my friend points him out and tells me the story above, saying his having a problem runnin the game cause it jerks and was wondering if he should upgrade the ram to a gig (he was seriously debating. you could see the sweat). I ask him what comp did you get... yeah well he shows me that piece and i laugh in his face, saying they warned you and told you it wouldn't work.

As of writing it's an AMD 3200+, 512 ram, 9600xt.

write protect the 4 autosave files in your HL-2 savegame directory, and be a happy gamer

Ah, I do remember something about that - isn't that a command I can type in the menu like autosave 0 or something...?

 

[alm4rr]

i defragged after sp2 but that was about it

 

[spyordie007]

Defragging under XP using NTFS is highly overrated. Back in the 9x/FAT days defragging frequently was important because performance would quickly drop as the system moved files around. However with XP you shouldnt have to defrag very often at all (typically I'll only do it once every 6-12 months).

BTW XP does background defragmentation on a number of system files; so generally the only thing a manulal defrag will help with is very badly fragmented user files.

As for your problem with jerky video Skoorb I dont think it's fragmentation related; the system is going to buffer the file and I'm seriously doubting that the bitrate of the video is enough to make it dependant on HD speed (unless you have a very old and very slow drive, but than considering the size of these files your problem would be space and not speed). If you were doing video editing it might be differant, but I really doubt that the fragmentation is going to cause the issues playing prerendered video.

-Erik

 

[biostud]

Originally posted by: Skoorb
write protect the 4 autosave files in your HL-2 savegame directory, and be a happy gamer

Ah, I do remember something about that - isn't that a command I can type in the menu like autosave 0 or something...?

[/quote]

It's too difficult to mark 4 files and writeprotect them? 😛

I can only say it made my HL-2 experience far better.