defrag

[smartin]

With all the large files that are created and deleted on our recording drives I was wondering what everyone does about defrag. Is it just a futile effort to keep up with and really doesn't impact the system or is it something that should be done to keep things running smoothly?

[martint123]

I have fairly regular runs of JKDefrag and keep my media files on a separate drive.
http://www.kessels.com/Jkdefrag/

[Koenie]

Contig is a little utility on the microsoft site which defrags single files. I have it in my postprocessing and with the video files on a separate disk there is no need for anything else.

The command looks as follows:
start /low /wait /b /min contig %1

this way it runs without visible window in a low priority threat so it does not hamper other programs.

[Bathman]

defragler

Free. Uses very little system resorches and takes up little space

[wtg]

A year or so ago I did a test of numerous defrag utilities, freeware and not, especially looking for one that could handle the large files a pvr creates, and on drives without much freespace. I don't recall testing the two mentioned above (defragler and JKDefrag) but I tried about all I could find, and two stood out.

O&O Defrag and PerfectDisk stood out. Both were the only two tools I tried that could defrag a disk that was near full. I ran a number of other defrag tools on the disks and then both of these would find more work to do and defrag them more completely, consolidating the freespace. They were both so much better than the free tools I tried that I decided it was worth the money. I ended up buying PerfectDisk Professional, and now they have a Home edition that's even cheaper and would be everything I need.

Anyway, definitely worth checking out the recommendations of others, especially the freeware, but both PerfectDisk and O&O Defrag have free trials so you might want to give them a try also.

[srhutch]

I have fairly regular runs of JKDefrag and keep my media files on a separate drive.
http://www.kessels.com/Jkdefrag/

Can I ask what paramters you use.

[User]

+1 for contig in postprocessing, automatic and always frag free.

[paf077]

A year or so ago I did a test of numerous defrag utilities, freeware and not, especially looking for one that could handle the large files a pvr creates, and on drives without much freespace. I don't recall testing the two mentioned above (defragler and JKDefrag) but I tried about all I could find, and two stood out.

O&O Defrag and PerfectDisk stood out. Both were the only two tools I tried that could defrag a disk that was near full. I ran a number of other defrag tools on the disks and then both of these would find more work to do and defrag them more completely, consolidating the freespace. They were both so much better than the free tools I tried that I decided it was worth the money. I ended up buying PerfectDisk Professional, and now they have a Home edition that's even cheaper and would be everything I need.

Anyway, definitely worth checking out the recommendations of others, especially the freeware, but both PerfectDisk and O&O Defrag have free trials so you might want to give them a try also.

I highly agree with you on this. I bought O&O Defrag Professional. It works in low priority in the background and I never had a problem running all manner of other apps. It never interferes with other processes. I highly recommend it.
I must say i never tried PerfectDisk. It might be just as good and it is less expensive, but when I purchased O&O for all my work systems around 8 years ago, I hadn't known about PerfectDisk and i don't think it was around then.

Paul

[martint123]

Can I ask what paramters you use.

AFAIR (pvr server is too far remote at the moment) I just use the default params. First time takes a long time, later on it's not too bad.