I've run into an odd problem. I have multiple drives in my pc. The boot/windows drive is a 40gig WD Caviar and my program/data drive is a 250gig WD Caviar. I allowed MF to use the default working directory on C and after every use I hit the icon to clear MF's temp files. Yesterday I got a low space warning on C (1.5gig free, had almost 25 the week before). I did the usual steps and ran tmp/bak cleaner and did a manual search for un-needed files. This evening I ran Perfect Disk and analyzed C drive. The drive map window showed a file fragment in every single cluster so I started defragging. After 20 minutes of little progress I ended the defrag and did another manual check looking for size of directories. In the MF working dir I found a temp project movie file that was 4.5 gig. I deleted it hoping this would give Perfect Disk more room to defrag with. As soon as I started up PD all the loose fragments were gone and I had 30 gig free!
So now I'm wondering why MF wrote a file fragment to every single free cluster on the drive? I did change MF's working directory to the other drive but now I'm wondering if that drive will suffer the same fate?
Anyone else have this problem or have an idea of what might have caused it?
Odd fragmenting behavior from MF temp file
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maddrummer3301
- Posts: 2507
- Joined: Fri Dec 10, 2004 10:24 pm
- Location: US
MF temp space
I strongly suggest changing your working folder to another drive instead of C: This is not a good place for MF to scribble GBs into.
You do not want your system drive to become 96% full. Seriously.
Your virtual memory (swap) is probably there too (unless you changed it) and is being resized by Windows all the time (unless you nailed it to set min/max size) which will fragment even more.
MF does not choose to write in fragments, it uses the space allocated by the file system of the operating system. MF will just get the leftover holes if that's all there is.
Even so, MF5 will use these areas (standard Windows paths):
Your %TEMP% folder. I believe I've seen several hundred MB from MF collect here while it is running. After proper termination they will be removed (except for a few small log files it always leaves behind).
Up to 50MB (size is a MF registry entry) browse cache in C:\Documents and Settings\USERNAME\Application Data\Ulead Systems\Ulead DVD MovieFactory\5.3\Ulead.dat\BwsCache\
Images (and previews I believe) cached in C:\Documents and Settings\USERNAME\Application Data\Ulead Systems\Ulead DVD MovieFactory\5.3\Cache
The above paths can be redefined in Windows (for user accounts) but not just for MF.
Sadly MF has no button or option to clean up all of its temporary data or (interrupted) project builds, like the cache cleanup of any browser. I remove all that stuff before creating an image backup of my system area.
You do not want your system drive to become 96% full. Seriously.
Your virtual memory (swap) is probably there too (unless you changed it) and is being resized by Windows all the time (unless you nailed it to set min/max size) which will fragment even more.
MF does not choose to write in fragments, it uses the space allocated by the file system of the operating system. MF will just get the leftover holes if that's all there is.
Even so, MF5 will use these areas (standard Windows paths):
Your %TEMP% folder. I believe I've seen several hundred MB from MF collect here while it is running. After proper termination they will be removed (except for a few small log files it always leaves behind).
Up to 50MB (size is a MF registry entry) browse cache in C:\Documents and Settings\USERNAME\Application Data\Ulead Systems\Ulead DVD MovieFactory\5.3\Ulead.dat\BwsCache\
Images (and previews I believe) cached in C:\Documents and Settings\USERNAME\Application Data\Ulead Systems\Ulead DVD MovieFactory\5.3\Cache
The above paths can be redefined in Windows (for user accounts) but not just for MF.
Sadly MF has no button or option to clean up all of its temporary data or (interrupted) project builds, like the cache cleanup of any browser. I remove all that stuff before creating an image backup of my system area.
Henry
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TurboSi
Thanks for the replies. I have changed the working dir to the other drive and there was one time another app caused a crash while MF was running but the loss of disk space appeared to show up around the 3rd time I used MF after the crash.
Maddrummer - yeah, I'm pretty positive it was a MF file. There was a file in the MF working dir (forget the exact name but started with tmp?????.avi) and was 4.5gig. As soon as I deleted it I gained 20gig of free space. I started Perfect Disk immediately after deleting the file and all the excess file fragments were gone.
I have been processing some .avi's ripped to XviD and I'm thinking the temp file was a leftover from the conversion. If it happens again I'll get screen rips and write down the file and locations...but I hope I don't have to
Right now I'm using Avi2DVD, seems to be quicker (but no fancy menus) and I get a continous stream of info on what's happening so it'll probably quite awhile before I use MF again.
Maddrummer - yeah, I'm pretty positive it was a MF file. There was a file in the MF working dir (forget the exact name but started with tmp?????.avi) and was 4.5gig. As soon as I deleted it I gained 20gig of free space. I started Perfect Disk immediately after deleting the file and all the excess file fragments were gone.
I have been processing some .avi's ripped to XviD and I'm thinking the temp file was a leftover from the conversion. If it happens again I'll get screen rips and write down the file and locations...but I hope I don't have to
Right now I'm using Avi2DVD, seems to be quicker (but no fancy menus) and I get a continous stream of info on what's happening so it'll probably quite awhile before I use MF again.