Hi all,I think i probably know the answer to this but i just wanted to throw something out there, for my own learning and to see what others thought.Having read numerous threads about defragging and also Nicks guide on it too, i have always been fanatical about defragging my HDD, now i dont use O&O as suggested by most - purely because i ended up reloading my HDD after the first defrag, coincidence or not i wasnt going to take the chance a second time.Anyway i use a free utility called auslogics disk defrag, its fast, free and seems to do the trick.Now of late i have to admit i have slipped in my defragging habits, having not done this quite as often (everytime i load fsx). This has resulted in what seems to be smoother performance.Now i dont know if this is because i am over defragging, or down to other things. Having sat and thought about this i came up with my own theory which i want to explain with the hope that others can clarify.When defragging it essentially arranges files at the start of the HDD and so makes accessing them quicker. According to Nicks guide using O&O's 'alphabetical' defrag option it is possible to arrange files in a sort of order that FSX will access them therefore speeding things up.But i am thinking that if and when FSX accesses files, they will eventually be arranged in an order that FSX will use them in - i tend to fly in the same regions so perhaps the same files are always accessed and arranged in an order preffered by FSX. So by not defragging these files are staying in this order and therefore FSX can find them quicker etc etc???It seems to make sense to me, but im sure it doesnt quite work this way.Of course an SSD drive would always solve many issues.What do you all think??Tom

Interesting theory.I have to admit that I also defrag much too often because I convinved myself that FSX ran more smoothly when I did.However, i didn't bother for a few weeks and th be honest, FSX seemed to run no better or no worse.The trick is to put FSX on its own second drive (with nothing else), defrag it, optimize it then leave it alone and it will not get fragmented again unless you start adding things.IAN

Interesting theory.I have to admit that I also defrag much too often because I convinved myself that FSX ran more smoothly when I did.However, i didn't bother for a few weeks and th be honest, FSX seemed to run no better or no worse.The trick is to put FSX on its own second drive (with nothing else), defrag it, optimize it then leave it alone and it will not get fragmented again unless you start adding things.IAN

Yeah i have gone down that route, of having a dedicated drive and that also seems to do the trick.

I for one cannot wait until SSDs come down in price enough to justify it... defrag will be a thing of the past then.

In my opinion effect of defragmenting is often exaggerated. During normal computer use I see no difference before and after defragmentation (with full optimization).When I bought 80GB Intel SSD for my system, the first thing I did was to try how FSX perfroms on SSD. And really the wasn't much difference between SSD and HDD. FSX loaded only several seconds faster, and there wasn't any FPS gain during flight of course. SSD as a system drive is another story

ssd isn't going to help your framerate, it's going to help the quickness of texture loading, texture popping, etc.

It's just one MORE piece to the puzzle. Does defragging alone solve all issues? On a properly tuned system, properly defragged - you will notice a small difference as compared to a system that is badly fragged. Most noticeable after a large install or when you have FSX on the same drive as the OS.Just like buying a Vraptor as compared to a 'regular' HDD - we're talking microseconds of difference. But we're also talking about micro-stutters etc so yes it's necessary if you want your system properly tuned. If you don't care, then it's not necessary. Important question is SHOULD you carer - totally up to what you expect out of FSX.Lastly, all defraggers are NOT the same - the reason that O&O is recommended is, simplistically, that it leaves the LEAST space between sectors and that transaltes to faster throughput. Vic

I did try the complete NickN 'method' twice and one time, after hours and hours of waiting, performance got even WORSE...! (FSX used to pause loading for a few seconds at a certain percentage, which didn't happen before the defrag.) So I concluded it was a waste of time. I told this before and usually I got the reply my system probably wasn't set up well... Anyway, I don't care about defragging, at least not those extreme methods: Windows automatic defrag is fine with me. I guess... And since I got Windows 7 and FSX on an SSD I care even less (and I have disabled all defragging). :(

Well, I'm using NickN's "method" since FS2004 and now for FSX and I'm getting much better performance than before. In my FS2004 days I had a terrible machine which was getting me 16 FPS in FS2004?!? But than I discovered NickN's guide, followed it and I was enjoying FS ever since. It's no miracle guide, just list of things (and explanations) to do to get good performance and good picture quality.. that works. If somebody had problems with O&O that doesn't mean the application is bad all the way.. I'm using it for two years now and I had 0 (zero) problems. In my opinion, it also works! Try not defragging for a few months and you'll see a difference (specially if you're using your PC for other things too). PS: You really don't need to defrag every time you start FSX :) Once per week or even month is good enough - my opinion, no expert :)

some1,

When I bought 80GB Intel SSD for my system, the first thing I did was to try how FSX perfroms on SSD. And really the wasn't much difference between SSD and HDD. FSX loaded only several seconds faster, and there wasn't any FPS gain during flight of course. SSD as a system drive is another story

Hi all,I think i probably know the answer to this but i just wanted to throw something out there, for my own learning and to see what others thought.But i am thinking that if and when FSX accesses files, they will eventually be arranged in an order that FSX will use them in - i tend to fly in the same regions so perhaps the same files are always accessed and arranged in an order preffered by FSX. So by not defragging these files are staying in this order and therefore FSX can find them quicker etc etc???It seems to make sense to me, but im sure it doesnt quite work this way.

FSX does not rearrange scenery files - they stay where you put them.If you do not install or un-install anything on your FSX drive there is no need to defrag it.