Vista - Defrag query

"Netty" <netty@newsgroup> wrote:
Defragging does nothing to regain space.

If you get an increase in space after defragging, it's probably due to
the Volume Shadow Copy Service seeing moved files as being new, ending
up with additional space being used by that service.Defragging is way over-rated, especially with Vista. If you NEVER
defragged your drives and merely let Vista do its own thing on its own
schedule, you'd be just fine, and have something less to worry about.

One thing you might do is run "Disk Clean-up" as an administrator.

Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > right-click on Disk
Cleanup and select "Run as administrator"

Under the "More Options" tab look at the lower section called "System
Restore and Shadow Copies" and click the button marked "Clean-up..."

When it asked, click "Delete"

Then click the OK button.

This should not only clean up the drive, but also remove excess System
Restore points (which can take up a lot of room on the drive). The utility
deletes all but the most recent System Restore points.

Saucy


"Netty" <netty@newsgroup> wrote in message
news:OOehW2JNKHA.4580@newsgroup

"Netty" <netty@newsgroup> wrote in message
news:OY0LpcKNKHA.3192@newsgroupXP, Vista and Windows 7 have a far better file management function than the
9x versions of Windows.
You shouldn't need to defrag more than once a month in XP, and Vista all you
need to do is to let it do it's own defragging, which it will do on an
on-going basis while the machine is idle.

"Netty" <netty@newsgroup> wrote:
Please. Surely you should see how this statement differs from your
previous one.

You added the disk cleanup tool to the mix... THAT will gain you space
- if there is anything of note to delete. Defragging won't. And
defragging could result in your LOSING space to Volume Shadow Copy
Service action.

On Sun, 13 Sep 2009 20:19:44 +0100, "Netty" <netty@newsgroup> wrote:

I'm not John Galt, but I'm sure. Your college tutors were completely
wrong about defragging. Defragging rearranges the used space on a
drive, and gives you no additional free space.


From the information you've provided, I can't tell you why you lost
space, but I can tell you it had nothing to do with defragging. Again,
it just rearranges, and does not change the amount of free space (in
either direction).

And if your college tutors told you to run the disk clean up tool if
you were running low on HD space, they weren't literally wrong, but it
wasn't good advice. If you are short of disk space, deleting the files
that disk cleanup does will save you only a tiny amount, and will be
nothing but a stopgap measure. Buy a bigger hard drive.

--
Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP - Windows Desktop Experience
Please Reply to the Newsgroup

When you use the Disk Cleanup tool, be sure to run it as an administrator
and to go to the More Options tab and delete excess System Restore points -
there can be dozens of them and they can take up a lot of room. And if you
do not ever put your computer into "hibernation" (different from Sleep),
then you should run

powercfg -h off

at a Command Prompt running as an administrator (right-click and select 'Run
as administrator). You will gain as much disk space as there is RAM,
typically 1 to 4 GB.

Does defragging gain disk space? Maybe - it used to, but now if it does it
does so inconsequentially - it's really not a way to gain disk space! You
could run the defragger from the command prompt:

defrag C: -v

'Else just set Vista up to do it automatically.

Saucy

Although I essentially agree with all you say above, let me add the
following about how often to defrag:

There's no answer that's right for everyone. It depends on how you use
your computer and it depends on how much you use your computer.

You should defragment your drive when doing so results in a speed up.
Here's what I recommend. Pick some arbitrary interval--for example
once a month. Defragment on that interval a few times, and assess
whether the computer generally feels faster after doing so. If the
answer is yes, defrag more frequently. If the answer is no, defrag
less frequently.

Repeat a few times, and you'll soon settle into a frequency that works
well for you.


--
Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP - Windows Desktop Experience
Please Reply to the Newsgroup

To add, there are specialty situations where a 3rd party defragging tool
with more features can be appropriate e.g. in a situation where a very large
file (or files) is accessed and altered very frequently and very high speed
is important.

Yes, they were absolutely wrong. Defragging the hard drive has never
resulted in more available disk space. By its nature all it does is
re-arrange the existing files so there would be no gain nor loss - the exact
same space would be taken up.

"Netty" <netty@newsgroup> wrote in message
news:OY0LpcKNKHA.3192@newsgroup

[NTFS - Wikipedia]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ntfs

Saucy



"Richard G. Harper" <rgharper@newsgroup> wrote in message
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