Defrag the computer is it REALLY that useful?

[kendonald]

Hi

I am beginning to enjoy reading this forum its very interesting. one thing that has ben suggested a couple of times is defragging the PC. Having worked in PC industry for a wee while now I taken aback at the priority this is given by people. Can anyone explain to me why defrag helps video editing. Is it simply the case that we are giving the PC as much help as it can get or is there something more in this process?

Ken

[lancecarr]

Windows is the messiest house guest you ever had, it just dumps stuff down wherever it feels like. After a capture do an analysis of the drive and you will get the picture. If you leave the files like that then VS has to read from all over the disc to find things. if you then combine that with an "on the fly" preview things start to get a little hectic.
Personally I defrag to get as much contiguous space as I can, capture to DV AVI then defrag again.
When I am ready to render to a final file I will check the files again before rendering then when the file has been created defrag again.
I just never have burning errors or crashes when I keep things nice and tidy.

[BrianCee]

I would agree - continuous 'housekeeping' of all kinds on your computer is the key to fault free captures and burns - a lot of programmes I use run automatically at different times so although my computer spends quite a lot of it's life being 'tidied up' none of it interferes with me using it.

[Nounours18200]

yes, you must defrag !

the best thing to do is to use an off-line capable defrag software, such as "perfectdisk" for example: it does a far better job than the windows xp built in defrag by defragmenting system's files.

[DVDDoug]

It's probably overrated unless you never do it. A lot of problems are blamed on fragmentation, but fragmentation will not cause data errors or crashing. To the computer, video-data is just like any other data.

It's really a performance/speed issue. As you probably know, the disc will read/write slower if the read/write head has to jump all over the place. And since the disk drive is often the bottleneck, especially with big video files, it doesn't hurt to keep the data on the disk "lined-up".

When you are doing real-time analog capture, computer-speed is very important. You can get corrupted data if the computer can't keep up with the video stream. In truth, any modern system, even with a highly fragmented drive is probably fast enough... And, if the drive has enough (contiguous) free-space, the newly created file shouldn't be fragmented anyway.

I do try to keep my system "clean". I have a separate physical audio/video drive. Before I start a new project I delete all of the old video files and defragment the drive (there are some other small files on the drive). I defragment again before I "burn".

[heinz-oz]

The real issue with defrag is this: HDD's are mechanical systems, the more the head has to lift jump accross to the next location, read, lift, jump etc. the more wear is put on the mechanism and the more heat is generated. Heat is deadly to bearings (disk spindle) and other electronics within the PC enclosure.

I use a background program which keeps my HDD's defragged at all times. Some of my HDD's have been in use for about 5 to 6 years without giving me problems. I also run several disks in an attempt to never have the PC read and write on the same disk. It's always reading off one and writing to another and my swap file is on a separate disk also and so are my system files.

[sjj1805]

All you ever wanted to know about swap files and de fragmentation

[kendonald]

Wow

I had no idea it would make such a difference. All of these posts have been very useful thank you

[ShortStack]

their are some other good programs out their like "System Mechanic " http://www.iolo.com and "VCOM Fix-It Utilities" http://www.v-com.com ........... that will fix regisrty problems and everything u can think of........ also can "recover and defragment RAM",u should look them up their good
hope this helps

[2Dogs]

and don't forget to defrag the windows registry too! I use a freeware program called NTRegopt for that, along with a couple of registry cleaners. Installing and uninstalling programs can quickly lead to a fragmented registry. Although that won't have a huge effect on performance, every little bit helps...as the vicar said to the....

The principal advantage of third party disk defragmentation programs to my mind is that they are generally much faster than windows' own defrag - and you can choose to do like Heinz and run them in the background if you like.

The sad fact is that there are tons of pc's out there with huge hard drives, with everything on a single partition - the windows default. The way windows works, that means every defrag results in data being moved around. When you keep data on a separate partition or drive, you may be surprised at how quickly it defrags.

(apologies to Steve if any of the above was already mentioned in his link)

[sjj1805]

I would just like to add a word of caution about the use of Registry Cleaners.
They can be too thorough and 'clean' items from the registry that shouldn't be 'cleaned.'

Before using a Registry Cleaner make sure that you know how to reverse any changes made as sometimes these things can inadvertently wreck a good working operating system. You will find that they have exceptions lists and also restore options.

If you are unsure of a possible problem with the Registry it may well be advisable to seek advice from the forum beforehand, there are plenty of 'experts' here only too willing to assist.

[2Dogs]

Good point, chief inspector! I fear my enthusiasm was probably getting the better of me! Caught banged to rights, it's a fair cop guv!