So my HDD is 16% fragmented which is supposedly pretty significant. Well, I realized it's about time to run a defrag (I've been neglecting this for too long)... and it's been running for ~2-3 days and it's only at 39%.
So I've got 3 questions.
1. Should it be taking this long for that amount of fragmentation? I know defrags aren't quick, and 16% fragmentation is quite a lot... but this just seems ridiculous.
2. Will there be any significant performance boost out of this? I've heard fragmentation doesn't have a big affect on performance so I'm curious.
3. Is there any way to pause a defrag, turn off your computer, and start it where you left off the next time you turn on your computer? (I am using defraggler, by the way) I really don't like leaving my computer running for several days straight like this and I'd prefer it if I could turn it off every once in a while without having to restart the defrag.
1) Depending on how fragged your hard drive is, it could take weeks. With those 115.8GB of fraggmented files, its going to take a while.
2) Yes, but not a very high change, maybe 10 FPS.
3) No
That is very slow. How much free space does your HDD have?
I have about 60% free right now (700GB) but there's a couple hundred gigs of footage which are temporary until rendered, so really I'm more in the range of 900GB.
1) Depending on how fragged your hard drive is, it could take weeks. With those 115.8GB of fraggmented files, its going to take a while.
2) Yes, but not a very high change, maybe 10 FPS.
3) No
1. Yeah my guess is that it's going to take 5-7 days at this rate. (Unless there will be more passes in which case.. well this will be hell) But alright, I was just making sure it wasn't being particularly slow
2. Well I'm not really looking in terms of FPS, I get very good performance on games still. The issue I'm having is that my HDD has been particularly slow lately (can't record at high FPS for extended periods of time, write speed starts to drop) and I think this might contribute to it.
3. Damn, but thanks.
1 - No. No roughly modern system or decent disk should be taking anywhere near that long. Do you have any AV that likes to monitor file changes? Are you trying to run any other disk intensive things at the same time? Considering your free space, 16% fragmentation is not a lot whatsoever.
2 - For sequential reading and writing of files, yes. On a raw mechanical level, there's inherently a performance boost, whether it's detectable or not varies. In many cases it can be.
3 - Don't know. The projected time is very likely due to some awful algorithm used by the windows included defrag tool. I remember this was quite a ridiculous thing when I tried to use it way back. I'd recommend acquiring a third party app... Something like O&O Defrag is what I use. Though I have so many massive intermediary files I don't bother defragmenting much.
You know that defraggler's estimated times are pretty horrendous right? I've been told while running it that it could take more than 24hrs but only took 4-5.
3 - Don't know. The projected time is very likely due to some awful algorithm used by the windows included defrag 'd recommend acquiring a third party app... Something like O&O Defrag is what I use. Though I have so many massive intermediary files I don't bother defragmenting much.
The Windows included Defrag in XP and Later is actually a stripped-down version of a Diskeeper. So technically, it is a third-party application.
All versions of Microsoft Windows include a tool for disk defragmentation. The Windows Disk Defragmenter tool is a limited version of the Diskeeper program from Diskeeper Corporation. Disk Defragmenter does not include all the features available in the full version of Diskeeper.
1 - No. No roughly modern system or decent disk should be taking anywhere near that long. Do you have any AV that likes to monitor file changes? Are you trying to run any other disk intensive things at the same time? Considering your free space, 16% fragmentation is not a lot whatsoever.
Hmm. Well I have a WD 1.5 TB Green Drive at 7200 RPM. I'd occasionally run some other moderately-intensive things during the day like games (usually only something like Binding of Isaac or Rogue Legacy though) but not 24/7 so I wouldn't see why it would slow it down much.
My only guess is that maybe the HDD goes into power-saving mode automatically since it's a green drive and slows down substantially?
(Even if that's not the case, can someone guide me on how to turn that off?)
EDIT 2: Alright so my new plan is to just do a fresh install of Windows. Seems a bit extreme, but I am not dealing with the time it would take for 23% fragmentation. The sad part is... I could reinstall windows, then redownload ~400GB worth of games, andI'd still be done before the defrag would be.
(But I have a second harddrive I can backup my stuff onto, so it for sure wouldn't take nearly as long.)
I wonder how the heck you would get it to be that fragmented. My current PC has been used heavily since I built it in late 2008, and the system drive reports 6% fragmentation and my secondary 1%.
If you have specific files or folders you want to defrag, you can make files contiguous in a more selective way using a tool like Contig.
I wonder how the heck you would get it to be that fragmented. My current PC has been used heavily since I built it in late 2008, and the system drive reports 6% fragmentation and my secondary 1%.
Some defrag tools report horribly wrong amounts of fragmentation.
In this example, Defraggler will never show less than 5-10% fragmented for whatever reason. I'm not sure when it started doing this, because it was working fine for a number of years.
I wonder how the heck you would get it to be that fragmented. My current PC has been used heavily since I built it in late 2008, and the system drive reports 6% fragmentation and my secondary 1%.
If you have specific files or folders you want to defrag, you can make files contiguous in a more selective way using a tool like Contig.
Everytime I paused a defrag, my computer would get more fragmented. I remember a month or two ago, it was at 6%. It was taking more than a few hours (heh, yeah) so I decided to stop it because it was taking so long. Goes up to 10% fragmentation. Recently, I try using the Windows defragger at 10%, it was running for about 24 hours and only had 4 passes done so I just decided to cancel it because I figured windows defragger was just inefficient. Bam, up to 16% when I checked next. Decided to do a Defraggler defrag, left it running for 2-3 days, bam Windows Update auto-restarts my computer overnight. Then it went up to 23% fragmentation.
All in all, my plan is to manually defragment a lot of the files that Defraggler lists, and then once I get it reasonably low I'll just run the defragger which should be able to do the rest in a reasonable time. I did this last night for about 2 hours, I sorted by largest file size, selected about 20 at a time from the list, defragged those individual files, rinse and repeat. So far, I've brought it down to 14% from 23%.
Given this behavior is only really prevalent in defraggler, I'd suggest to use something else.
Nothing obscenely wrong with the windows defrag tool, really.
Otherwise, I'd go with the theory that there is something wrong with your HDD.
Well like I said, when I stopped the defrag midway through the windows defragger, it ended up fragmenting more so it wasn't exclusive to Defraggler doing this. The Windows Defragger was also taking just as long (I waited over a day before I decided to stop it and try something else). But I dunno, manually going through and defragging sets of files at a time seems to be working fine, I've gotten it down to 13% now, which is pretty good progress.
I'm really hoping my HDD isn't messed up, but I did make a thread about it not long ago, didn't get too many replies
Hey guys, not-so-long story short, my HDD appears to slow down pretty drastically after recording for a while.
I've got a Western Digital Green Drive (yes, I've heard some people have issues with green drives which is concerning me) I don't recall the exact model, but it's 1.5TB at 7200RPM. Generally speaking, Dxtory's benchmark test determines the write speed to be somewhere in the range of 80-115 MB/s. Generally I set it to record at a slightly lower write speed (~65 MB/s) seeing as I don't need it to be at 80+ to record to 1280x720. (Is this bad? I assumed it just would "lighten the load" on the HDD to set it lower, but maybe the benchmark is the recommended speed?) Anyways, I can usually record an episode or two fine (40 mins to 1 hour) but then I start getting into the third episode, and I notice the FPS it's recording at has dropped down below 10. The game is still running fine, it's just the recording isn't. So I run another benchmark and come to find out, it dropped down to somewhere in the range of 15-25 MB/s which is god awful.
Some things to consider:
My house is damn hot. I'm sweating a little bit just sitting in my computer chair. We don't have the air on, and it's been 70+ degrees and humid for a couple weeks now. The result of this? My computer runs hotter and louder than it typically would. (Within minutes of booting up a moderately intensive game, my computer gets substantially louder) I don't know if this has a direct impact on the HDD but I'm pretty sure it can't be positive.
My HDD is 10% fragmented, which I guess is pretty substantial. I'm doing a defrag right now, don't worry. It's been a while but now I've set a schedule up so it will automatically do defrags every once in a while. (Would you recommend monthly?)
It's a green harddrive. I've heard things about green harddrives reducing their power for the sake of saving energy. I haven't really experienced this issue over the past 7 or so months that I've had this though, so I don't know why it would start up now.
This seems to happen over time. It's not like it drops down to 12-25 FPS and stays there forever. It happened earlier so I shut off my computer for a couple hours, came back, ran a benchmark, and now it's back into the 80 MB/s range. It's like, the longer I record, the slower it gets.
I may have some viruses... I ran into this nasty virus a couple weeks ago and installed 7 or 8 different anti-virus programs to run scans and delete anything it catches. I don't know if it ever caught the specific virus (supposedly it's very evasive) but I should be clean of most viruses. I'm also running Avira protection all the time, so I'm doubting there's much in the way of viruses aside from that possible mess I mentioned earlier.
So yeah, if someone might be able to pinpoint what's causing this, it'd be helpful. I'm really really hoping that it's not some sort of Harddrive failure...
Download HDTune and post a screenshot of the "health" tab, is anything listed as "warning" or "danger"?
Here's what it says:
Shouldn't it at least give a "Good" or something under status if there's no problems?
Also, just out of curiosity, could my green drive be dropping down to 5900 RPM to save power which is in turn causing issues? I've heard that recording at 5900 RPM can be pretty rough and can possibly damage your harddrive when you're doing something as intensive as that on a HDD at those speeds for extended periods of time
So I've got 3 questions.
1. Should it be taking this long for that amount of fragmentation? I know defrags aren't quick, and 16% fragmentation is quite a lot... but this just seems ridiculous.
2. Will there be any significant performance boost out of this? I've heard fragmentation doesn't have a big affect on performance so I'm curious.
3. Is there any way to pause a defrag, turn off your computer, and start it where you left off the next time you turn on your computer? (I am using defraggler, by the way) I really don't like leaving my computer running for several days straight like this and I'd prefer it if I could turn it off every once in a while without having to restart the defrag.
2) Yes, but not a very high change, maybe 10 FPS.
3) No
My YouTube Channel --->https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCM70mQPHXT9RC8skS5pK6Vg
I have about 60% free right now (700GB) but there's a couple hundred gigs of footage which are temporary until rendered, so really I'm more in the range of 900GB.
1. Yeah my guess is that it's going to take 5-7 days at this rate. (Unless there will be more passes in which case.. well this will be hell) But alright, I was just making sure it wasn't being particularly slow
2. Well I'm not really looking in terms of FPS, I get very good performance on games still. The issue I'm having is that my HDD has been particularly slow lately (can't record at high FPS for extended periods of time, write speed starts to drop) and I think this might contribute to it.
3. Damn, but thanks.
2 - For sequential reading and writing of files, yes. On a raw mechanical level, there's inherently a performance boost, whether it's detectable or not varies. In many cases it can be.
3 - Don't know. The projected time is very likely due to some awful algorithm used by the windows included defrag tool. I remember this was quite a ridiculous thing when I tried to use it way back. I'd recommend acquiring a third party app... Something like O&O Defrag is what I use. Though I have so many massive intermediary files I don't bother defragmenting much.
And that's why I should not browse the forums on a phone and miss things like that.
The Windows included Defrag in XP and Later is actually a stripped-down version of a Diskeeper. So technically, it is a third-party application.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/130539
Yep, and all to waste. The goddamn automatic windows update restarted my computer overnight.
EDIT: I'd like to add on now, my computer is 23% fragmented because it stopped the defrag midway. Great.
Hmm. Well I have a WD 1.5 TB Green Drive at 7200 RPM. I'd occasionally run some other moderately-intensive things during the day like games (usually only something like Binding of Isaac or Rogue Legacy though) but not 24/7 so I wouldn't see why it would slow it down much.
My only guess is that maybe the HDD goes into power-saving mode automatically since it's a green drive and slows down substantially?
(Even if that's not the case, can someone guide me on how to turn that off?)
EDIT 2: Alright so my new plan is to just do a fresh install of Windows. Seems a bit extreme, but I am not dealing with the time it would take for 23% fragmentation. The sad part is... I could reinstall windows, then redownload ~400GB worth of games, and I'd still be done before the defrag would be.
(But I have a second harddrive I can backup my stuff onto, so it for sure wouldn't take nearly as long.)
If you have specific files or folders you want to defrag, you can make files contiguous in a more selective way using a tool like Contig.
In this example, Defraggler will never show less than 5-10% fragmented for whatever reason. I'm not sure when it started doing this, because it was working fine for a number of years.
Everytime I paused a defrag, my computer would get more fragmented. I remember a month or two ago, it was at 6%. It was taking more than a few hours (heh, yeah) so I decided to stop it because it was taking so long. Goes up to 10% fragmentation. Recently, I try using the Windows defragger at 10%, it was running for about 24 hours and only had 4 passes done so I just decided to cancel it because I figured windows defragger was just inefficient. Bam, up to 16% when I checked next. Decided to do a Defraggler defrag, left it running for 2-3 days, bam Windows Update auto-restarts my computer overnight. Then it went up to 23% fragmentation.
All in all, my plan is to manually defragment a lot of the files that Defraggler lists, and then once I get it reasonably low I'll just run the defragger which should be able to do the rest in a reasonable time. I did this last night for about 2 hours, I sorted by largest file size, selected about 20 at a time from the list, defragged those individual files, rinse and repeat. So far, I've brought it down to 14% from 23%.
Nothing obscenely wrong with the windows defrag tool, really.
Otherwise, I'd go with the theory that there is something wrong with your HDD.
Well like I said, when I stopped the defrag midway through the windows defragger, it ended up fragmenting more so it wasn't exclusive to Defraggler doing this. The Windows Defragger was also taking just as long (I waited over a day before I decided to stop it and try something else). But I dunno, manually going through and defragging sets of files at a time seems to be working fine, I've gotten it down to 13% now, which is pretty good progress.
I'm really hoping my HDD isn't messed up, but I did make a thread about it not long ago, didn't get too many replies
Here's what it says:
Shouldn't it at least give a "Good" or something under status if there's no problems?
Also, just out of curiosity, could my green drive be dropping down to 5900 RPM to save power which is in turn causing issues? I've heard that recording at 5900 RPM can be pretty rough and can possibly damage your harddrive when you're doing something as intensive as that on a HDD at those speeds for extended periods of time
Here ya go