Defrag or Norton Speed Disk

[Sevann]

I check Defrag and my drive is fragmented after moving a few things around and then the DDo update goes in. So I defrag it. Everything is fine.No fragmented files. Then I pick up norton system works. Run Norton Speed Disk. A few days later I deleted a bunch of files and decided to check Defrag again. I had DDO files ,as well as a few others that I did not touch, fragmented again. At this time norton system doctor was telling me that my drive is optimized. Defrag says defrag. OK. So I run defrag. No more fragmented files. Now optimization is at 80% ( or something like that). So I run speed disk. Optimized 100%. Now for some reason I decided to check defrag again. And guess what. DDO is fragemented again.

Now my question is....
Which program should I trust more, Defrag to keep files from being fragmented. Or Speed disk to keep (i think this is what it does) frequently accessed files in a more convenient place on the disk?

Is there a way to get them both at 100%?

[Theboz]

Always defrag your disk, Defraging is different then speed disk. you should have to defrag very often(everyday), once a week is good.

[tjholiday]

This is very wrong. Norton SpeedDisk is a third party Defragger. It does the same thing as Microsoft's OS based Defragger, but the claim is Norton's is more aggressive.

TJH (IT Consultant)

[blakbyrd]

A few questions:

1. Do you have everything installed on a single hard drive (non-partitioned), or do you have windows on one hard drive and all other installed software on another?

2. Do you use standard hard drive configuration(s) or do you use RAID drives?

3. What version of Windows are you using and What version of Norton are you using?


Speed Disk does do a bit more than Windows Defrag, and can take longer to do it. It will also run constantly, always trying to optimize the disk(s). The later versions tend to want to do this even if you don;t want them to, which can in some instances interfere with the performace of other software or games.

Speed Disk has its benefits over simple defragging, however it's real benefits come into play when properly setup on a system designed more for hosting (or server applications) rather than basic desktop or workstation systems. There is still some benefits for basic desktops, but not nearly as much.

For the most part, and for general desktop usage, I would suggest just sticking with your regular defragger. The two work slightly differently and as such you will never really be able to get them both at 100% with any consistency. You would also get better performance by running Windows on it's own hard drive or partition and placing all your installed software on another (or better yet placing the rest on a stripped RAID array, which is quite common and available on most newer motherboards now).

If your system is borderline for DDO to start with, then defragging on a regular basis may help, but it can only do so much, at which point expect minimal differences no matter which you use (and probably less efficiency in playing if you leave Speed Disk in operation).

[tjholiday]

Speed Disk does do a bit more than Windows Defrag, and can take longer to do it. It will also run constantly, always trying to optimize the disk(s).



Um, sorry, no. SpeedDisk is an application just like Defrag for windows. You have to execute it, it does its optimization, then quits. You can schedule it for automated runs, but it does not operate all the time. It executes, does its job, then quits.


The later versions tend to want to do this even if you don;t want them to, which can in some instances interfere with the performace of other software or games.

The only way this is possible is if you execute the program then play a game (which would be odd), or you schedule the defrag at a time during your normal usage of the system (which would be very bad). Matter of a fact, by default, SpeedDisk isn't scheduled to run at all. You have to specifically set that part up. If you do set that up, do a weekly sometime at 3:00am in the morning.


Speed Disk has its benefits over simple defragging, however it's real benefits come into play when properly setup on a system designed more for hosting (or server applications) rather than basic desktop or workstation systems. There is still some benefits for basic desktops, but not nearly as much.

Actually, SpeedDisk was never designed for servers or hosting. It was specifically targeted to desktop/workstation machines. It optimizes based on "usage", which means it optimizes applications you use more often, which has no advantage on any server environment. Microsoft's Defrag doesn't pay attention to usage, rather just defrags files. It is certainly a debate whether Norton's algorithems are "better".

JMS

[Sevann]

A few questions:

1. Do you have everything installed on a single hard drive (non-partitioned), or do you have windows on one hard drive and all other installed software on another?

Windows and basic data storage as well as a few rarely used apps and games are on my C drive. DDO, music, and video files are on my external K drive.



2. Do you use standard hard drive configuration(s) or do you use RAID drives?

whats that? Standard I guess.



3. What version of Windows are you using and What version of Norton are you using?
windows XP sp1 ( sp2 crashes my comp when I install it) Norton 07.

I think for now ill defrag C and speed disk K. I also think Im gonna get a seperate drive for my music and video files and move a few apps from C to k