Some more opinions Bsobel...not that they can out power yours :roll:
Hard drive fragmentation articles: Taken from
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/ZDM/story?id=472194
Reduce hard drive growing pains. As you fill up your hard drive, Windows places new files wherever there's room. Sometimes files must be broken into pieces to fit in the available space. Too many broken (or fragmented) files can slow down your system and increase the likelihood of data loss or hard drive crashes.
You're probably aware of Windows XP's Disk Defragmenter tool (buried under Start | All Programs | Accessories | System Tools), which reorganizes the files on your hard drive to make them contiguous.
What isn't obvious is how to deal with the so-called unmovable files (the green swaths in Disk Defragmenter's disk map), which will remain fragmented even after you've defragmented the rest of the files. Most likely, only two entities on your hard drive are flagged as unmovable: your swap file and the Master File Table (MFT).
The only way to defragment your swap file is to delete it before running Disk Defragmenter. You should only try this if your PC has at least 256MB of RAM. Go to Control Panel | System | Advanced tab | Performance Settings | Advanced tab | Change. In the Virtual Memory box, select No paging file, and then click on Set. Click OK | OK | OK, and then restart your computer. Run Disk Defragmenter, and defragment the entire drive. When it's done, return to the Virtual Memory box, but now choose the Custom size option. If you specify the same number for both Initial size and Maximum size (set it two to four times the amount of physical RAM), your swap file will never grow or shrink, and will be immune to future fragmentation.
The MFT, your hard disk's other unmovable entity (NTFS drives only), is your hard drive's table of contents. As you add more files to your drive, the MFT gets filled up; once it's full, it grows, and that's when it starts getting fragmented. With a simple Registry hack, you can allocate more space for the MFT so that it won't need to grow so often. To do this, open the Registry Editor and navigate to HKEY_ LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Filesystem. Double-click on the NtfsMftZoneReservation value on the right side, and enter a number between 2 and 4 (1, which reserves 12.5 percent of the NTFS volume for the MFT, is the default). A value of 2 or 3 (which reserve 25 and 37.5 percent, respectively) is probably fine for most drives, but 4 reserves the most space, 50 percent (at the expense of free space). Close the Registry Editor when you're done. You can check on the health of your MFT in Disk Defragmenter by clicking on Analyze and then on View Report.
http://forum.dbpoweramp.com/showthread.php?t=6099
Next, check to see if your disc is badly fragmented. While fragmention affects XP less than other operating systems,
it can affect XP if the disk is badly fragmented. Go back to the Tools tab on your HDD's properties, and click the "Check Now" box next to Defragmentation. Click analyze. When it's finished, a dialog box will pop-up. Look for "Fragmentation" and a percent. You should also see "File Fragmentation" and "Data Fragmentation". If these numbers are over about 20%, then defragment the hard drive. Try ripping again after it finishes.
Select Diskeeper Version: 9.0.515 9.0.504.0 (2004-10-13) 8.0 (2003-09-20) 7.0 (2002-07-25)
http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/windows/23773
Product Description:
Automatic disk defragmenter with scheduling & configurability. Customize your defragmentation schedule depending upon the condition of your disk.
Disk fragmentation causes crashes, slowdowns, freeze-ups and even total system failures. Manual defragmentation just isn't practical?it takes too long. NEW Diskeeper 9 is the 'Set It and Forget It's high-speed defragmenter that runs undetectably in the background and makes the problems of fragmentation go away forever. Download the fully-functional 30-day trialware.
What's new in this version:
Changes have been made to allow Diskeeper Server editions to be installed on 64-bit versions of Windows. Note that Diskeeper Home Edition and Diskeeper Professional editions cannot be installed on 64-bit versions of the operating system.
Changes have been made to display dates in the correct local date and time format.
Product Requirements:
Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2000/XP
http://consumer.execsoft.com/diskeeper/dkpro.asp?RId=1
Disk fragmentation occurs when a file is broken up into pieces to fit on the disk. Because files are constantly being written, deleted, and resized, fragmentation is a natural occurrence. When a file is spread out over several locations, it takes longer to read and write. But the effects of fragmentation are far more widespread: Slow performance, long boot times, random crashes and freeze-ups?even complete inability to boot up at all. Many users blame these problems on the operating systems, when disk fragmentation is often the real culprit
http://mywebpages.comcast.net/SupportCD/XPMyths.html
NTFS is Fragmentation Free - Source
Myth - "The NTFS File system does not get fragmented and Defragmenters are unnecessary."
Reality - "Even though NTFS is more resistant to fragmentation than FAT, it can and does still fragment. The reason NTFS is less prone to fragmentation is that it makes intelligent choices about where to store file data on the disk. NTFS reserves space for the expansion of the Master File Table, reducing fragmentation of its structures. In contrast to FAT's first-come, first-served method, NTFS's method of writing files minimizes, but does not eliminate, the problem of file fragmentation on NTFS volumes."
http://kennethhunt.com/archives/000768.html
Windows 2000 / XP NTFS Fragmentation = Ultimately Corruption ?
Disk Defragmentation in Windows: Rough Sledding
I'm going to take this with a grain of salt, although it would go a long way to explaining some of the "cruft" issues associated with windows. Simply on hearsay: I have heard in the past that Diskkeeper had failed to defragment an existing MFT on a RAID array, the ensuing hijinks while not primarily ES fault, still pointed to a failure to complete a task which was the primary purpose of the software package. e.g. defragmentation of a functioning machine, and defragmentation of the MFT. YMMV verify your backups before using any defragmenter.
For example, the report described a test of Windows 2000 and XP in which a custom program fragmented a NTFS-formatted drive. Even though the drive was only filled to 40 percent of capacity, the fragmentation resulted in automatic creation of additional Master File Table (MFT) metadata files. When a single 72MB file was copied to the disk, all the files were corrupted. At a certain point, the OS just can't maintain all of the necessary directories and ensure data integrity. Ouch!
http://www.webtechgeek.com/How-to-Troubleshoot-a-WindowsXP-Computer-Part2.htm
How To - Troubleshoot a Windows XP Computer Tips Page:
By Raymond, WebTechGeek.com -
Usually Windows XP works quite well, and even though it is more stable than its predecessors,
it still can hang and crashes on occasion. Fortunately, Windows XP comes with a number of diagnostic tools that can help. Microsoft has also added one new tool, Remote Assistance, which allows Microsoft technicians to fix your computer over the phone.
Before you call a computer repair tech service and pay big money for help, you should take a look at your computer yourself. Just a little common sense may help you solve some simple hardware and software problems, like loose cables. If you do decide to call technical support, remember to write down the problem and what you were doing when it occurred. And also take note of any error messages.
You should try to be as specific as possible when talking to the tech support or Pc repair person. For example: the OS Windows ME or XP, Whenever I try to start up my PC, I see an error message box, whenever I run this program.
Computers tend to crash or hang when their hard disks become too fragmented or full. You should free up space by deleting unnecessary files and emptying the Trash or Recycle Bin. Also run Scandisk and disk defragmenter in system tools. Remember to come back to WebTechGeek.com for more How to tips!
When an application crashes in Windows XP, Windows will displays a box telling you about it. There's not much you can do, just click OK. It's a good idea to restart Windows the program may have damaged files or Windows' internal operations. Remember to come back to WebTechGeek.com for more How to tips!
If a Windows program hangs, you can force Windows to stop the hung program. Just press CTRL-ALT-DEL to open the Windows Task Manager dialog box.
Look on the Applications tab of the Windows Task Manager, a hung program will usually has the notation "Not responding" in the Status column. All healthy programs are designated as "Running." Now select the name of the hung Windows program and then click End Task. The program should then exits.
If all else fails, press CTRL-ALT-DEL to display the Windows Task Manager and then choose Shut Down > Restart on the menu bar: Windows XP should restart. Windows may runs ChkDsk so that all disk errors can be repaired, this is normal for Windows. Remember to come back to WebTechGeek.com for more How to tips!
.
Facebook
Twitter