Re: Why a dumbed down version of defrag ?

First, thank you so much for participating in this newsgroup. Whether we
agree with every design decision in Vista or not --- and that would be an
impossible goal --- it's a pleasure to hear them explained lucidly.

A question and a couple of comments:

(1) The default disk defrag schedule in task manager uses an -I switch which
is not documented when you run defrag -?. I am guessing it means "(I)dle"
mode -- I.e. don't run unless computer is idling or give back as much CPU as
possible. ?????

(2) The comments: I liked being fooled by the old progress indicator (lol)
or at least seeing a map of defrag running. We all KNEW the estimates were
hopeless! But, it was comforting to watch the fragments move around --
well, mesmerizing maybe. Maybe for Service Pack 2 (whenever) you can add
back some kind of visual interface for those of us who want to see it.
Download Auslogic's disk defragger (free -- I'm sure MSFT could get it for a
song! ) On top of the MS defrag engine, that would be fine.

(3) For all those who have been complaining, run DEFRAG with the -w switch,
go get a cup of Starbucks (you'll have plenty of time), and then, when it's
done, run Auslogic's or some other defragger that is Vista compatible and
has a visual disk map. You'll be quite surprised and pleased at what a good
job MS DEFRAG did.

Thanks again!




"Jill Zoeller [MSFT]" <jillz@online.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:#z2E1vL6GHA.1244@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
> The problem is that it's very difficult to judge progress. I'm pasting the
> answer from our FAQ (http://blogs.technet.com/filecab/pages/440717.aspx)
> below:
>

Hi Robert,

These are some good questions. Here is some more information.

1) You are correct. The -i option means that unless the machine is idle
defrag.exe will pause. If the machine is idle (no interactive user input)
for a few minutes defrag will continue. The option is not documented since
it was added late in the Vista development cycle when resource changes were
not possible (otherwise localization will be delayed). The option will be
documented in a KB article once Vista is released. On a similar note, the
scheduled defrag task is configured to only start when the machine is idle.

2) We have heard the feedback on defragmentation progress and are
considering what we can do to provide *reliable* progress indication in a
future version of windows. I believe you have all read my response on the
FAQ that Jill referenced below and understand why the progress was taken out
so I'm not going to rehash it here.

3) Although it is documented, I thought I'd use this post to clarify the
meaning of the -w option. Without the -w option defrag will perform partial
defragmentation which means that it will only try to coalesce file fragments
smaller that 64MB. Further coalescing these extents is expensive both in
terms of defragmentation time and free space requirements while the
performance benefit is small. At 64 MB, the additional seek time associated
with reading 2 disjoint fragments of this size, is negligible compared to
the rotational latency to actually read the contiguous portions of the
extents. The -w option allows you to bypass the partial defragmentation
behavior and try to defragment all extents regardless of size.

Once again, thank you for participating in the Windows Vista Beta program.

Georgi Matev [MSFT]
PM Core File Solutions

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

"Robert Blacher @hotmail.com>" <rblacher<remove spam blocker> wrote in
message news:4C3B5585-038C-4B37-82E8-9FFF158F8E20@microsoft.com...
> First, thank you so much for participating in this newsgroup. Whether we
> agree with every design decision in Vista or not --- and that would be an
> impossible goal --- it's a pleasure to hear them explained lucidly.
>
> A question and a couple of comments:
>
> (1) The default disk defrag schedule in task manager uses an -I switch
> which is not documented when you run defrag -?. I am guessing it means
> "(I)dle" mode -- I.e. don't run unless computer is idling or give back as
> much CPU as possible. ?????
>
> (2) The comments: I liked being fooled by the old progress indicator
> (lol) or at least seeing a map of defrag running. We all KNEW the
> estimates were hopeless! But, it was comforting to watch the fragments
> move around -- well, mesmerizing maybe. Maybe for Service Pack 2
> (whenever) you can add back some kind of visual interface for those of us
> who want to see it. Download Auslogic's disk defragger (free -- I'm sure
> MSFT could get it for a song! ) On top of the MS defrag engine, that
> would be fine.
>
> (3) For all those who have been complaining, run DEFRAG with the -w
> switch, go get a cup of Starbucks (you'll have plenty of time), and then,
> when it's done, run Auslogic's or some other defragger that is Vista
> compatible and has a visual disk map. You'll be quite surprised and
> pleased at what a good job MS DEFRAG did.
>
> Thanks again!
>
>
>
>
> "Jill Zoeller [MSFT]" <jillz@online.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:#z2E1vL6GHA.1244@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
>> The problem is that it's very difficult to judge progress. I'm pasting
>> the answer from our FAQ
>> (http://blogs.technet.com/filecab/pages/440717.aspx) below:
>>
>
>