To index or not to index - that is the question

[Ray Proudfoot 8,954]

Apologies to the Bard :-)I have two HD in my system. One for the OS and the other partitioned two ways with FSX on the outer and FS9 on the inner.I've read that it's better to turn off indexing on the FS drive as the Date Last Accessed is written to each file read by FS. Seems logical enough.But since I bought Ultimate Defrag there's an option in it to separate infrequently accessed files and to Archive them to the innermost part of the HD. That logic sounds fine because if you never fly in South America for example those files would be placed well away from those regularly accessed. When you fly in your normal areas those BGLs would be on the outer (fastest) part of the partition and would be read more quickly.But for this archiving to work the Date Last Accessed has to be switched on and that, I believe, requires Indexing to be enabled for that drive. But time stamping each file takes processor time which could in theory affect performance.So taking all this into account what do the experts recommend? Turn indexing off and store all the used and unused BGLs on the outer part of the drive with no archiving? Or index and keep the unused BGLs archived but with slower access times should you fly in different areas?

[GHarrall 494]

Ray,I can only tell you how I have it set up and that is with the indexing (and the associated service) turned off.However, I use O&O Defrag and it has the option to defrag by file 'name'.This seems to work very well for Flightsim and several folks recommend it including Nick N from GEX and Allen from UTX.I know Nick has a very in depth post regarding the pros of O&O over other defrag tools. You may want to check it out.

[Mace 1,919]

I recommend you turn off Content Indexing/the whole Indexing ServiceI would want ALL of my FS files on the outer. Even if I didn't fly there, I would want my South America files out there too.RhettFS box: E8500 (@ 3.16 ghz), AC Freezer 7 Pro, ASUS P5E3 Premium, BFG 8800GTX 756 (nVidia 169 WHQL), 4gb DDR3 1600 Patriot Cas7 7-7-7-20 (2T), PC Power 750, WD 150gb 10000rpm Raptor, Seagate 500gb, Silverstone TJ09 case, Vista Ultimate 64ASX Client: AMD 3700+ (@ 2.6 ghz), 7800GT

[Ray Proudfoot 8,954]

Hi Glenn / Rhett,2-0 to indexing off so far. I'm keeping an open mind about it because I see benefits with both systems.So it would seem both of you do not favour archiving unused files. Okay, maybe I should change my options in Ultimate Defrag. I'm aware that O&O is a popular alternative but UT is quite adaptable.Both of you have recommended switch Indexing of but without a reason. Care to expand on the reason for your recommendations?

[Mace 1,919]

>>Both of you have recommended switch Indexing of but without a>reason. Care to expand on the reason for your>recommendations?Content Indexing pro's:1) makes file searches faster, i.e. the Search functionContent Indexing con's:1) runs (= disk accesses) in the background, at random times2) increases your fragmentationThe question I always ask myself is, how often do I do a file search? I answer to myself, "not too often, but every now and then I do". Then I ask myself, does it matter if that file search takes an extra second? I answer to myself, "no it doesn't matter to me, if I get slightly faster disk access across the board (and in FS)".RhettFS box: E8500 (@ 3.16 ghz), AC Freezer 7 Pro, ASUS P5E3 Premium, BFG 8800GTX 756 (nVidia 169 WHQL), 4gb DDR3 1600 Patriot Cas7 7-7-7-20 (2T), PC Power 750, WD 150gb 10000rpm Raptor, Seagate 500gb, Silverstone TJ09 case, Vista Ultimate 64ASX Client: AMD 3700+ (@ 2.6 ghz), 7800GT

[Ray Proudfoot 8,954]

Rhett,Pretty good answer. But when FSX starts how does it find the files it needs to load? Does it not have to search for them? And if needs to does that not increase the load time?Making comparisons with relational databases if you turn indexing off it takes a lot longer to find records. If FSX works on the same principle surely it would take longer to find the required BGLs and therefore could worsen performance.I need to research this more I think.

[Mace 1,919]

>Rhett,>>Pretty good answer. But when FSX starts how does it find the>files it needs to load? Does it not have to search for them?>And if needs to does that not increase the load time?>No that is not done by Content Indexing (CI). It is used by Windows search. What you describe would be Prefetch, which you should probably keep on.The difference is not great with CI vs without, with modern hard drives/cpu's it is a pittance of a difference. I'd spend my time researching other things to improve FS performance honestly.RhettFS box: E8500 (@ 3.16 ghz), AC Freezer 7 Pro, ASUS P5E3 Premium, BFG 8800GTX 756 (nVidia 169 WHQL), 4gb DDR3 1600 Patriot Cas7 7-7-7-20 (2T), PC Power 750, WD 150gb 10000rpm Raptor, Seagate 500gb, Silverstone TJ09 case, Vista Ultimate 64ASX Client: AMD 3700+ (@ 2.6 ghz), 7800GT

[Ray Proudfoot 8,954]

Hi Rhett,<>I researched this more and found a site of XP tweaks that recommended switching indexing off. As you say, it only speeds up searching for files or data within files. Not something that's important to me. It doesn't improve file loading (quite the opposite) so I'll deactivate it on all my systems.I don't have access to the PC at present so can't check Prefetch but that is something I'm sure I haven't changed.Thanks for your reply. Maybe I should research parting banks from their assets so I can afford that killer CPU! :-lol

[Emile 28]

Hello,You can also try eboostr.comIt works for me on my XP SP system.

[Ray Proudfoot 8,954]

Hi Emile,I looked at that site. eBooster uses available RAM as additional CPU cache. Given my E8400 has 6Mb of L2 cache (the fastest memory available) I don't think it would boost performance for me.It certainly would help on CPUs with less cache as in your case.

[altstiff 71]

Hey Ray, just a quick heads up. An older game I play called Grand Prix Legends needs indexing on to work, other wise it won't start. The game was made in 1998.....I do run with indexing off, with some older programs you may need it on.Just a "side note" in case your running some older proggy's....

[Ray Proudfoot 8,954]

Thanks for the advisory. I don't have time for anything other than FS and I hardly have enough time for that!Do you think FS9 could be classed as an 'older program'? ;)

[Guest Nick_N]

Do not enable that service and disable it on the drivesThat service has benefit to servers and office based systems, it has no gain in a home system and especially one that needs every CPU cycle it can getShut it down, all of it

[Ray Proudfoot 8,954]

I was wondering when you would pop in. :-)Okey dokey. The master has spoken. I will obey Obi-Wan. :-)But wouldn't you think that for a OS that includes the word Home in the title it would not enable this service.:-hmmm

[Guest Nick_N]

LOL!!There are a lot of things you would think would not be enabled by defaultThey had to cover the bases and that is what Network Admins are for.. to customize based on the useCheck my tweak list for what should be disabled and is safe without questionThere is more one can shut down.. but I will tell you something, ... shutting down more services in this day and age with the memory amounts we use is not going to gain anything. The items I listed are the ones that will have the most impact, including and especially system re-goreAfter that, the trick is to get the running processes at boot down to a nice 30 'clean' ones or less. That is one area that can be tricky and it can even take someone like myself an hour or so to go through, confirm what is needed and what is trash and get rid of it at boot.Tweakers that shut things down do not shut them down right. They usually just remove access to the system. The trick is to have everything not needed be shut down at boot so no footprint on the system is present at all. When you boot and then shut things down your not really getting the full advantage of a true performance and clean boot.Some services should never be shut down.. they can leave your background in a endless 'loop' trying to access a service just to poll it and all that removes cycles while in action behind the scenes.