Originally posted by: pcgeek11
It is obvious in this instance your computer is in fact smarter than you are. It is not going to screw up your files by optimizing them. It will help in both of the things you use your computer for. The hard disk will perform better when it has a low fragmentation level, and if the fragmentation level gets too severe it could cause data corruption. Regardless of what you might think you know.
pcgeek11
I don't claim to be an expert on exactly how XP defrag works, or even if the thing they call "optimize" even is defrag, or if it's the process that moves more commonly used files to faster parts of the drive. But the defrag programs I know of move fragments to other parts of the drive where they can be combined together, then rewrite the unfragmented files back into the freed up space where the fragmented files use to be. Doing this now and then during so called idle time, interrupted by my using the computer and creating new files, doesn't seem like nearly as good a process as running a full defrag at an appropriate time.
For my uses on this particular computer( I have other computers for more general use)
1. playing games- the only time defrag would help is when loading the game, or a new level, or if it is using the swap file. None of these are of any importance to me in the games I play.
2. for large video files. The half done defrag that has to be occuring during idle time, might be defragging files, but it is fragmenting the free space on the drive if it isn't running to completion. This means when I write a new large file to the drive it will be more fragmented than it would have been if the idle time "optimization" had not occured.
So what I do is, when I'm going to be writing large files, is I run defrag to completion, to maximize the unfragmented free space on the drive. I think the idle time defrag actually must be doing the opposite of what I want it to do, since it never gets to finish. And with the defrag programs I'm familiar with, the optimization of free space happens at the very end of the process.
Now, if I'm wrong on these concepts, please let me know.