Is it advisable to defrag the hard drive of a handycam?

[sheltiephil]

I would like to defrag the hard drive of my Sony HDR-SR12E handycam if it is advisable. I use PerfectDisk to defrag my computer running 64-bit Windows 8.1.1.

'This PC' (formerly 'My Computer') recognizes the drive but the message when clicking properties/tools reads 'Optimisation not available".

The program PerfectDisk does recognize the drive and looks ready to optimise it. Still, I would like somebody with experience to confirm that defragging/optimisation of the handycam's hard drive is advisable. If I can't find any advice it might be wiser just to format the camera's hard drive from time to time.

I haven't heard back from Sony or from their forum.


Regards, Phil

[BrianCee]

I would not normally keep any video files on a camcorder hard drive - after filming I move all of them to my computer - then you have an empty disc which cannot be fragmented - I have never tried it with a camcorder with a built in hard drive but when using SD cards I do an in camera 'format card' to make sure it's empty - don't know if your camera has a similar command in it's menu - but in any case as I said - an empty disc will not have any fragmentation any rate.

[sheltiephil]

Thanks for responding Brian. Yes, of course you are right, it's not worth keeping the files on the camera. I should have realized that the whole drive would be free of fragmentation once all files had been copied to the computer and those on camera deleted. I suppose I imagined that filming and deletion might leave the drive or free space somehow fragmented. It's good to know that emptying the drive leaves it more or less as-new. I will just keep it clean.

Do you think that there's anything to be gained from formatting? I bought the Sony HDR-SR12E 2nd-hand. It is in very good condition. I suppose I wouldn't have looked for such a big hard drive in a camera, but this one came along. I wonder what people need with 120Gb accommodating 14 hours of 1920x1080i AVCHD files at 16Mbps.

So, that clears it up, thanks - regards, Phil

[BrianCee]

The only thing to be gained from formatting in camera is that it removes any odd little bits tucked away in the various folders and makes sure that the card/hard drive is ready in the way the camera needs it to be for more files