Re: After XP SP3 pemanently fragmented files

Stephen

The reality is that there are so many scenarios that what suits one
situation does not have a significant impact in another. Defragmenting
should not be taken in isolation. You should always run Disk CleanUp (
or cCleaner ) before running Disk Defragmenter. The combination of the
two will have an an impact but it will differ from one system to
another.

A point worth making is that a system which has limited RAM and CPU
capacity may need all the help it can get to achieve an acceptable level
of performance. The percentage improvement will be greater on computers
in this situation than those with plenty of RAM and CPU capacity.

How much RAM and what is the CPU on your system?

Looking at your Disk Defragmenter Report my interpretation is that not a
lot is wrong.

Do you run Disk CleanUp before you run Disk Defragmenter? One limitation
Disk CleanUp has is that to be more effective it needs to be run in each
User Profile where there is more than one user active.

An alternative to Disk CleanUp is cCleaner (freeware) which does a more
thorough job than Disk CleanUp. Disk CleanUp has to be run for each user
profile, whereas cCleaner only needs to be run once.
http://www.ccleaner.com/ccdownload.asp
http://www.ccleaner.com/

With any cleaner you need to proceed with caution. To be safe you
should create a restore point before using cCleaner. cCleaner also
offers backup before removal.

When using cCleaner think twice before checking Autocomplete Form
History under Internet Explorer. You do get a warning but this one has
irritating consequences. You may need to restore your system's
recollection of passwords after use so keep a record off computer so
that they can easily be re-entered.

Leave the Scan for Issues option alone.

cCleaner does not remove restore points. You need to use Disk CleanUp
for this. Select Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Disk
CleanUp, More Options, System Restore and remove all but the latest
System Restore point.

It is noticeable that you are running McAfee. What version would that
be? You do seem to have a lot of logs running?



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Stephen Ford wrote:
"Pegasus (MVP)" wrote:


"Stephen Ford" <StephenFord@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in
message news:67597C52-3884-4ECF-A099-AE5032623F4F@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Oh dear, I missed the lot. I'm going to answer as much as I can

<<Do you have Windows Live Messenger installed? >>
yes, but disabled.

<<While having all files completely continguous might give you
a warm feeling of satisfaction, having a few fragmentend files
makes no measurable difference on the performance of your
PC - so why worry?>>
I'm amazed that people are saying that fragmenation makes not
difference. I
halved the response time of a laptop recently by defagging and it
makes a noticeable difference to my PC. If what I have always
understood fragmentation to be is still valid, which is bits of a
file scattered around
the disc, it can't do anything but slow the machine down. Although
I'm ready
to learn...

*** I said "having a FEW fragmentend files makes no measurable
*** difference". Try to measure the difference - you won't notice
*** anything!

The lap top had dozens of files - maybe hundreds - with 400+
fragments each on an XP system. My PC has dozens of files >300
fragments after a week.

I would venture to suggest saying about the effects of fragmentation
that there will be a proportionally greater impact on speed when
regularly used files are highly fragmented (eg o/s and db files). I
wouldn't expect to see a difference with a highly fragmented WP or
spread*** file.

What puzzles me is a note from the defragmenter about files left
fragmented. That just does not seem right, and in the absense of the
file names (even though the warning dialogue says the file names are
in the report - but they are not) I'm stuck for wondering what's
going on.

It's like the garage saying "We serviced your car and the diagnostics
say there is a broken wire. The cost of the service is..." So most
people I would I think say, "So... which wire?" with the garage
replying "Sorry, the diagnostics didn't say..." And I feel that
Windows is doing that in this case.


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