-pops- Posted April 11, 2004 Report Share Posted April 11, 2004 Did a defrag of my "C" drive on Friday - part of my normal maintenance schedule but noticed that there were five red sections and numerous blue white stripes (W XP) remaining after it told me it had finished. Yesterday I wanted to do some video editing and all I got was crashing, dropped frames and dreadful sound interference. This is often a sign of the hard drive needing defragging (there are other reasons, not relevant to this post) so I defragged again, even though it told me I didn't need to do it. The analysis chart looked more or less as it had done immediately after the same process the previous day and the message flagged up again that the drive didn't need doing. Nevertheless, I carried on. The defrag took just as long to complete as it did the previous day and this time it did remove the errant red bars and consolidate the blue - not completely but much more so than before.Why is this?? Why didn't it do the job the first time?I carried on to complete the video stuff with no problem after that. Note the video files weren't the cause - they are on another drive, it is only the program (Pinnacle Studio 9) that is on the main drive.My message is: If you are not happy with your defrag (look on the analysis chart when it's done), close then re-open the program and go through the process again. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andsome Posted April 11, 2004 Report Share Posted April 11, 2004 Have you tried Diskeeper? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
expertec Posted April 11, 2004 Report Share Posted April 11, 2004 I seem to remember reading in a certain magazine that if you defrag three times in a row, things will go even smoother Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
-pops- Posted April 11, 2004 Author Report Share Posted April 11, 2004 Have you tried Diskeeper?No but I'm thinking about it - thanks :) I'll have a go at the three times one first - thanks to you, expertec, as well :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nellie2 Posted April 11, 2004 Report Share Posted April 11, 2004 Ellas introduced me to Perfect Disk, I was using Disk keeper and I must say I think Perfect Disk is better!Just my opinion though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ellas Posted April 11, 2004 Report Share Posted April 11, 2004 yeah I found perfect disk does a much better boot defrag and then prompts you to do a normal defrag after,plus diskeeper seems to drag the system down with the resources it uses,pops try the trial of perfect disk. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
-pops- Posted April 11, 2004 Author Report Share Posted April 11, 2004 I tried the three times defrag and, yes, it does a little more each time.Time consuming though.I've downloaded the PerfectDisk trial version and will give it a go when I've next done some video work (tomorrow).I said in my top post here that my video files are on another disk which is true but, it appears that the manipulation of the files is done on the "C" disk and then transferred to the other drive for storage. I think this is the cause of so much fragmentation - Windows just sticking work wherever it feels like it and not in a logical sequence (computers? logical? :unsure: ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
-pops- Posted April 11, 2004 Author Report Share Posted April 11, 2004 Unable to confine my curiosity, I downloaded and ran PerfectDisk.Well, it ran the analysis and told me it recommended various things which I then instructed it to carry out. It was just as if I hadn't done a Windows defrag at all!!After 35 minutes it had completed its task and my machine is zooming along like it's not done since I built it. This program has made a real and very positive difference to my machine and I will certainly buy it and recommend it to anyone and everyone.Thanks for the links, nellie and ellas :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
-pops- Posted April 11, 2004 Author Report Share Posted April 11, 2004 Sorry to keep going on about this but I really can'te get over how much improved this machine is now - after its PerfectDisk treatment.As I intimated above, I have always done regular defrags using the inbuilt facility of Windows but I've now come to realise that, like so many Windows add-ons, it does the job, but only just, and an independent program is very much better.Big :) all round, I think. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andsome Posted April 11, 2004 Report Share Posted April 11, 2004 I'm trying it at this very minute. It is MUCH slower than diskeeper, but I will let you know how it looks when it has finished. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
-pops- Posted April 11, 2004 Author Report Share Posted April 11, 2004 I think it's initially slower because it has a lot of sorting out, and its Smart Placement and all the other speciality bits and bobs. I'm expecting that subsequent runs will be quicker.It may be that you won't find as big a difference as I did after the less than effective Windows defragger but, I'm certainly a convert.It can also be scheduled to work on a regular basis and it seems to work OK in the background as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andsome Posted April 11, 2004 Report Share Posted April 11, 2004 I think it's initially slower because it has a lot of sorting out, and its Smart Placement and all the other speciality bits and bobs. I'm expecting that subsequent runs will be quicker.It may be that you won't find as big a difference as I did after the less than effective Windows defragger but, I'm certainly a convert.It can also be scheduled to work on a regular basis and it seems to work OK in the background as well.I've got to have a good look at it yet, and sort out what it all means. It is certainly more complicated than diskkeper. The paid for version of that is £19, any idea how much this costs? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
-pops- Posted April 11, 2004 Author Report Share Posted April 11, 2004 £30·35 from http://www.raxcosoftware.com/buynow.asp?ProductID=80but there is a Dis keeper trade-in deal http://www.raxcosoftware.com/diskeeper.asp Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ellas Posted April 11, 2004 Report Share Posted April 11, 2004 about £23 if you download it from there site $44 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ellas Posted April 11, 2004 Report Share Posted April 11, 2004 or less http://raxco.links.channelintelligence.com...sp?sSKU=PDV6W1P oh pops try a next boot defrag for an even bigger boost. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andsome Posted April 11, 2004 Report Share Posted April 11, 2004 Still running first time after about 35 mins. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
-pops- Posted April 11, 2004 Author Report Share Posted April 11, 2004 Still running first time after about 35 mins.Mine ran that time AFTER three successive Windows defrags immediately beforehand. It certainly looked on the graphics that it had a lot to do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Posted April 11, 2004 Report Share Posted April 11, 2004 What performance booooots do we see here?Word opening 12 seconds faster? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Rebel=UK= Posted April 11, 2004 Report Share Posted April 11, 2004 I use Norton SystemWorks 2004 that does a good job Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
-pops- Posted April 12, 2004 Author Report Share Posted April 12, 2004 What performance booooots do we see here?Being able to work with video and not being able to work with video. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andsome Posted April 12, 2004 Report Share Posted April 12, 2004 It certainly looked as though it had done a pretty effective job. I have to sort out Boot time and background defragging now. It is certainly more complicated than Diskeeper. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
-pops- Posted April 12, 2004 Author Report Share Posted April 12, 2004 Just done the boot time defrag. Could be a bit scary for some as it drops to a DOS type screen after its required reboot but, it does its work, reboots and everything is AOK.There is a definite improvement in the whole machine and, as a tester, I did a video transfer/conversion from analogue tape to DVD last night. I achieved something I've never had before - not one single dropped frame. Worth it for that alone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djohn Posted April 12, 2004 Report Share Posted April 12, 2004 Interesting post -pops-. Must admit I have always defraged three times in a row with XP Pro. The first time was out of curiosity to see if it would remove a thin white band between two large blue bands. [Technical eh?] :lol:I was surprised that it did so ran a third time and noticed more compression so have carried on doing this since. Not a big problem for me as the first defrag takes about 4 minutes, second 2 minutes and the third a matter of 15-30 seconds.I was reading an article the other day though that suggest defraging is not only not necessary with XP but can in fact slow down the system. [something to do with NTFS working different than FAT 32] I will try to find the damn thing again and post a link. :unsure:[Edit] found the article. May be of some help. :unsure:http://www.techbuilder.org/article.htm?ArticleID=47626 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ellas Posted April 12, 2004 Report Share Posted April 12, 2004 interesting but like pops I do a lot of video editing and believe me the video editing programs make a mess,fair enough if your not doing video editing but otherwise the system slows to a crawl,I agree about the partitions though I used partition manger and drive image on one of my machines it has slowed down especially on shutdown and start up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
-pops- Posted April 12, 2004 Author Report Share Posted April 12, 2004 Djohn, this utility (PerfectDisk) has certainly helped me a lot since I installed it yesterday.I've only recently started doing video, mainly to help my son out and like ellas says, it makes an awful mess of a hard disk, even if the files are eventually placed on another drive. I've just come back on line after rendering another DVD from analogue tape. Not only was it quicker than usual, it had no dropped frames at all in the capture.I probably wouldn't have bothered if I hadn't been getting problems with the video stuff and just stuck to my normal Windows XP Pro defrag. As it is now, I'm so impressed, I going to buy the program when the trial period is over. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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