Raid 0 - Does defragging really do anything?

[sallgood]

This might be a really stupid question, but here goes:

I currently have 2x250gb SATA Maxtors in a Raid 0. Occasionally I'll use the standard windows defrag to speed things up and get rid of clutter. I started to wonder if defragging a Raid 0 array really does anything? The files are already split between the two drives... does the OS really have the ability to tell what files are fragmented and where (if they are) to move them to?

... can someone shed some light on this for me?

 

[ElTorrente]

Yes, defragging works, and matters on a RAID array.

For one thing, the OS just looks at the RAID array as being one big drive, and just writes data like it normally does. It doesn't necessarily "care" if it is RAID or a single drive. It is the RAID card/controller that handles placing the data on the individual drives- but does so based on where the OS chooses to put it on its one big drive.. make sense?

 

[bob4432]

i defrag with diskeeper 9 once a week

and yes it does help, i don't notice it much on my machines because they are always defragged, but when you use somebody else's machine and defrag it when it hasn't been done i years, there is a difference

 

[w00t]

Originally posted by: bob4432
i defrag with diskeeper 9 once a week

and yes it does help, i don't notice it much on my machines because they are always defragged, but when you use somebody else's machine and defrag it when it hasn't been done i years, there is a difference

I just used diskeeper after i saw this its alot better than the os built in version. defraggin put's the data on the outside of hd so its faster to read so it does help out alot if you didnt defrag your hd would have to the sectors defraggin puts all the data to the programs in the same spot so its fast to read.

 

[ElTorrente]

I used to have Diskeeper and used it for a few months, then I switched to Perfectdisk- which I really like better. It does a better job than Diskeeper- but either way they are better than the normal disk defragger.

 

[Tsosczb]

From what I see, PerfectDisk consolodates free space much better than Diskeeper, but doesn't defrag in all the ways Diskeeper does. PD also takes longer.

 

[GamerExpress]

Originally posted by: Tsosczb
From what I see, PerfectDisk consolodates free space much better than Diskeeper, but doesn't defrag in all the ways Diskeeper does. PD also takes longer.

Yep, that's true. I would go with Diskeeper, it's less intrusive in the automatic defrag mode, it also has performace settings to gain the most performance from your disks over PD.

 

[SuperFreaky]

good info thanks

 

[JonnyBlaze]

to everyone using diskeeper, run a boot time defrag. it works wonders. check every option in there.

 

[bob4432]

Originally posted by: JonnyBlaze
to everyone using diskeeper, run a boot time defrag. it works wonders. check every option in there.

defiantely, i do that about 1x monthly