Re: when to defrag?

From: Ken Blake (kblake_at_this.is.an.invalid.domain)
Date: 12/30/04 

Date: Thu, 30 Dec 2004 09:47:40 -0700

In news:NGPAd.147$D97.64@newsfe6-gui.ntli.net,
kline <coma_ellipse@noospaamyahoo.com> typed:

> How long should I leave it before defragging my hard drive
> under XP
> Home SP2? I had thought that it should be done about once a
> month or
> so, but when I open the Disk Defragmenter program and run
> "analyse"
> it says that a defrag is not necessary.

This is one of those many questions where there's no simple
single answer that's right for everyone. You should defrag when
your drive is fragmented enough to adversely impact your
performance. How often that is depends on your usage patterns,
and since everyone's usage patterns are
different, the answer is different for each of us.

Here's my recommendation: arbitraily pick some period, say
monthly, and defrag on that schedule a few times in a row.
Following these defrags, do you generally sense an improvement in
speed? If so, defrag more frequently. If not, defrag less
frequently.

Repeat that procedure a few times, and you should settle into a
defrag frequency that works well for you. 

-- 
Ken Blake - Microsoft MVP Windows: Shell/User
Please reply to the newsgroup

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