What is "Directory Consolidation" in W2000's Diskeeper?

[WoundedWallet]

I remember that the defrag in W98 had an option for consolidating all files and folders in the beggining of the drive.

In Diskeeper, after defraging, the folders are left on their places while the files are moved to beggining of the drive.

But there is a choice to do Directory Consolidation after the boot. Is this the same thing that Defrag used to do in W98?

Reason I'm asking first is because of some warning I get about backing up everything before doing this Directory Consolidation. It seems too severe for something that was common place in W98.

WW

 

[jaywallen]

Hi,

Not really a direct answer to your question, but an observation. I use DKNT, and the boot-time defragmentation does consolidate directory structures at the front of the drive -- sometimes (see below). I believe Executive Software recommends performing a standard defragmentation first.

An intereresting point to note is that the directory consolidation does not appear to work the same on NTFS partitions as it does on FAT partitions. That is to say that the boot-time consolidation does appear to happen, but subsequent running of DKNT's GUI shows the directories are still scattered here and there across the platters. They may have been consolidated, but they certainly have not been moved to the front of the drive. I have three machines running W2K FAT and W2K NTFS dual boot, and I see this behavior on all three PCs.

I'm glad you posted this question. Now maybe I'll get off my lazy butt and RTFM so I can find out why the difference in behaviors.

Regards,
Jim

 

[WoundedWallet]

Thanks Jim,

From what you're saying it sounds that the objective of "directory consolidation" is to pack everyhting at the beginning of the drive. So I'll try it tonight.

I'll also try it on my NTFS system and see if we get the same results.

WW

 

[jaywallen]

WW,

You're welcome. I'd be very interested to read of your results.

I just got an email from Executive Software in response to an earlier query I'd made. They acknowledge that there is a problem with their "autontfs.exe" executable that prevents partitions with Mac data streams on them from getting their directories consolidated. They were supposed to have attached a replacement executable for me to try to that email, but the tech support guy must have forgot it. It didn't arrive in my Inbox.

I'll poast back to this thread if I should learn something.

Regards,
Jim

 

[WoundedWallet]

I just finished consolidating my FAT32 system with Diskeeper. And it indeed consolidated all folders to the beginning of the drive.

When I went to test my NTFS syestem I realized that I had never installed Diskeeper there. Ops!

That means it will take me a while to find the program, install and test it. You're not the only lazy butt around here

But whenever I do I'll post it here too.

Later.
WW