Is it possible to defrag fsx by itself within the hard drive?Ron

Is it possible to defrag fsx by itself within the hard drive?Ron

Yes, but not with the default defragger. Quick search and you will find.

Is it possible to defrag fsx by itself within the hard drive?Ron

Try O&O defrag, and defrag by name.

Is it possible to defrag fsx by itself within the hard drive?Ron

Yes, I use Ultimate Defrag by Disk Trix. Works very well as it has increased my frame rates and reduced the blurrys. You can defrag FSX and make it a priority to have the program put it on the outside of the disk for faster access by the system. Used it since it first came as a promotion with FSX . Cheap too for what you get..You can get a free trial version at their website. Most bugs are out now and I have multiple hard drives totaling 5 TB without problems. http://www.disktrix.com/

The Windows 7 defragger is very good! It works so well that I no longer feel the need for a 3rd party one.Also I get lazy with defragging unless after an un / install.jja

I'm wondering.. if I follow (and I do) NickN's defrag plan... and I use REX and ASA, where ASA loads new textures before new flight from "Snapshot" (Universal Weather, Rainy, Ovrecast,..)... is this hurting performance in any way? Do those textures "brake" the defrag?

I'm wondering.. if I follow (and I do) NickN's defrag plan... and I use REX and ASA, where ASA loads new textures before new flight from "Snapshot" (Universal Weather, Rainy, Ovrecast,..)... is this hurting performance in any way? Do those textures "brake" the defrag?

Over time ANY disk reading and writing will cause defragmentation. Has nothing specific to do with any particular program. That's why we need a defragger in the first place.IOW, just running FSX will start to break the defrag.Vic

Over time ANY disk reading and writing will cause defragmentation. Has nothing specific to do with any particular program. That's why we need a defragger in the first place.IOW, just running FSX will start to break the defrag.Vic

Actually it won't. ALL the files that are written or re-written by FSX at the start of a sim session are located OUTSIDE the main FSX folder - FSX.cfg, scenery.cfg, saved flights and weather and the like. READING a file does not cause any defragmentation as the file is read in-situ like looking at a billboard, not picked up, read and then put down like perusing a magazine or book... No matter what drive you install FSX to, the files for immediate transfer are located and read from the Page file, RAM, GPU memory and buffer, having been first extracted from the source location. This is inherent in Windows. You don't fragment a drive by reading it, but of course every time you install a paint job (or remove one for that matter) you create holes and gaps in the concurrent and synchronous homogenised installation. So yes, file swapping to replace one texture with another WILL cause fragmentation, as no computer ever puts the replacement file in precisely the same location in the platter, no matter the identical name, size and/or format but the amount of fragmenting this will cause is small. However it WILL have an effect when you understand the mechanics (as opposed to the electronics) in operation. No matter how large or small the file, the read head on the hard drive has to physically travel to the location and extract the file for passing to the page file or ram buffer. In that sense it doesn't matter how bad the fragmentation is, it's already having an effect on loading times.Of course, the opposite is true if you replace a platter-style hard drive with a modern Solid State Drive (SSD). As SSD's act like persistent RAM, they should never be defragged as they store information in a non-linear form anyway.

If you follow Nick's defrag plan there is "Complete/Name" method. This method reorganizes your file structure (by folders I think). ASA snapshot option loads new textures from REX into FSX and, as far as I know, these are some pretty big files and quite a lot of them. So I think (don't know, that's why I'm asking) the impact on defragmentation is not negligible. Or is it?

I believe the best way to keep things running smoothly is to defrag once a week or so, that way they don't take too long, and you don't get as much of a rollercoaster of performance (say not defragging for a couple months, then defragging and all of a sudden FSX runs so much better!).I recommend Ultimate Defrag by DiskTrix, like one of the above posters. It's simple to use if you want that, but you are able to get in and really customize your defrag if that is more you're thing. I recommend setting your FSX folder to "high performance", which moves it to the absolute outside of the drive, increasing it's read speeds. Then it's also a good idea to put windows folders out there as well to increase the overall speed of your OS. Beyond that, any other programs you use a lot could fall into line after those, and then simply leave everything else alone and choose the "Consolidate" defrag method to take care of the less important files quickly and easily. Make sure you check "Respect High Performance", as this will respect your FSX and Windows folders as the most important and only start the general defrag after those are in place at the outside of the drive.Also, Ultimate Defrag is free for private use, and there is a premium version that gets even more into the nitty gritty if you desire to do so.And like other people say, always defrag after a big add-on install (maybe after you try it out once. I know it's hard to wait).

I recommend Ultimate Defrag by DiskTrix

I use O&O Defrag as Nick recommends. I was using it even before I knew that.The only reason I'm asking this is because I believe REX's textures are huge and therefore a big impact on defragmentation. I'm also using ASA (Active Sky Advanced) for real time weather. ASA has a function called "Snapshot", so before every flight ASA asks you if you want ASA to load a snapshot (textures from REX) in connection to weather (clear, rainy, snow, overcast,..). So if I make 2 flights per day that means all those textures are loaded two times per day and files get fragmented. I'd like to know what this impact is... big or small?Sorry for my English.

Actually it won't. ALL the files that are written or re-written by FSX at the start of a sim session are located OUTSIDE the main FSX folder - FSX.cfg, scenery.cfg, saved flights and weather and the like. READING a file does not cause any defragmentation as the file is read in-situ like looking at a billboard, not picked up, read and then put down like perusing a magazine or book...

Actually, it will. I believe I said that any reading & writing will ultimately cause defragmentation. I stand by that. Whether they are in or outside of the FSX folder has absolutely no bearing on the drive defragmentation. A drive is a drive is a drive.I agree that just reading a file will have no effect but that wasn't my response.Now the degree of defragmentation is another story.Vic

I use O&O Defrag as Nick recommends. I was using it even before I knew that.The only reason I'm asking this is because I believe REX's textures are huge and therefore a big impact on defragmentation. I'm also using ASA (Active Sky Advanced) for real time weather. ASA has a function called "Snapshot", so before every flight ASA asks you if you want ASA to load a snapshot (textures from REX) in connection to weather (clear, rainy, snow, overcast,..). So if I make 2 flights per day that means all those textures are loaded two times per day and files get fragmented. I'd like to know what this impact is... big or small?Sorry for my English.

The simplest way to see what the effect is would be to run O&O and analyze the drive. note the % fragmentationh. Take a few flights. Reboot and analyze again and see what the difference is. That should give you an idea.FWIW, I find that running O&O Space defrag once a month and Name defrag once a quarter works perfectly fine for me. If I do a new install of a program like REX, FEX, GEX etc - then I will do a defrag immediately.It' something to be aware of but not something that you have to check daily.Vic

There is a very good program called "Smart Defrag" and it is freeware, and does wonders for performance of Windows and FSX. It comes with many features such as Defrag Only, Fast Optimize and Deep Optimize. Each plan has its own way of defragging and moving parts files so they can be sequential instead of scattered on the hard drive. It also has an auto defrag feature if you want to defrag the HDD anytime something gets fragmented, and a scheduler. Another good, fast defragmenter is Auslogics Disk Defrag, but it does not have as many features. I used to use Auslogics but now use Smart Defrag. Smart Defrag won CNET's Editors Choice of April 09, and has a 5/5 rating by the editors.Smart Defrag:http://download.cnet.com/Smart-Defrag/3000....html?tag=mncolAuslogics Disk Defrag:http://download.cnet.com/Auslogics-Disk-De....html?tag=mncol

Actually, it will. I believe I said that any reading & writing will ultimately cause defragmentation. I stand by that. Whether they are in or outside of the FSX folder has absolutely no bearing on the drive defragmentation. A drive is a drive is a drive.I agree that just reading a file will have no effect but that wasn't my response.Now the degree of defragmentation is another story.Vic

Sorry to correct you, but no, because the writes to those files that ARE amended on startup do not normally require relocation, co-location or file splitting. A .cfg file remains a homogenised single-section file as it is composed of one file, not a multiplicity like the FSX installation. You are confusing FILES with FOLDERS. Ultimately there will be some degradation from the MFT which will change size during normal operation, but like the .cfg and .wx files this will occur OUTSIDE of the FSX file structure and thus will NOT impact on the FSX file structure for the purposes of loading the game session. ...and therefore has no impact on a defragmented FSX installation. Both O & O and Ultimate Defrag can demonstrate this unequivocally if you check the fragmentation after, say, a week, when there has been no addition or subtraction to the main FSX folder or sub-folders. Then there is no fragmentation of the FSX folder, and if you happen to have FSX located `on other-than-C:` drive there will be no fragmentation at all.If however, FSX is installed to the default C: drive then it will be subject to relocation upon defragging caused by the myriad of other operating system file additions and deletions affecting its root location on the hard drive, even though the sim folder structure itself remains intact and cohesive. At this point the semantics become important as by having a FSX install on a.n. other drive than C: one can substantially reduce the need for defragmentation, and the time it takes to complete when one does. My full defrag of FSX on my (FSX standalone) F: drive takes less than 5 minutes using Ultimate Defrag yet I can often add, remove or alter things nightly in the sim, with new aircraft, relocating currently unflown aircraft, scenery additions, texture file changes from REX or Active Sky X, changes drawn by using payware landclass which requires installation or de-installation, not just unchecking in the scenery menu.

The simplest way to see what the effect is would be to run O&O and analyze the drive. note the % fragmentationh. Take a few flights. Reboot and analyze again and see what the difference is. That should give you an idea.FWIW, I find that running O&O Space defrag once a month and Name defrag once a quarter works perfectly fine for me. If I do a new install of a program like REX, FEX, GEX etc - then I will do a defrag immediately.It' something to be aware of but not something that you have to check daily.Vic

On this we certainly do agree! ALWAYS complete a full defrag after installing anything to FSX that contains a FOLDER/FILE structure - which basically means any aircraft, scenery, repaint or texture modification. Single files need not be defragged immediately as they can wait for the monthly defrag as their impact on seek times for the read/write head is negligible. But if FSX is on the C: drive then weekly runs will be the optimal performance option. Reason is the dynamic nature of the Operating System. I have my C: drive purely set for the OS, and the usual My Documents folder. With a 20-gig dedicated drive (not a partition) I regularly see 20-25% fragmentation prior to a weekly defrag run. Now this is not to say that an OS + FSX installation will show proportionately the seem degree of fragmentation, but it does indicate the level of to-ing and fro-ing of the OS folder/file structure and you look at the HD map one can easily see OS files deposited in the middle of the otherwise synchronous FSX installation and NO DEFRAGGER CAN PREVENT IT, only solve it afterwards.

I use ASA and if I accept the snapshot offered then the textures from that snapshot are loaded over the previous textures installed. So I do get some defragmentation. However, it is not enough to cause any issues with FSX. I do however do a named defrag once per week. This takes a while but that's what the TV is for. Using O&O #12. As suggested, if you want to reduce FSX defragmentation then install it in a different partition from the System partition (usually Drive C:). The System partition is highly dynamic and will fragment with only one day's usage.