Hello,Some days I degragged my HDD for increased performance in FSX. Immediately after defragging I checked how much space was left on my HDD. Before defragging that was 360 GB, and after defragging 348 GB!? I thought it was supposed to make free space on my HDD. When I started FSX there was also some slight performance loss. I'm using the programm Ultimate Defrag, I'm using the default settings and just click "Analyze", and let it do it's thing. After defragging, the image of my HDD has turned totally green. Are there some specific settings i need to use in order to get the best performance out of FSX? Any help would be appreciated.Thanks in advance,

Hi, O&O Defrag is recommended for FSX. Download it and use the free trial.

Hi Using Ultimate Defrag 3, I would choose FOLDER/FILE NAME defrag method to defrag the drive you have FSX on (best installed on a different drive to your operating system).Click on settings and choose "Custom" in the High Performance section. Click "select files" and tick your FSX installation folder, move it over to the right hand pane using the << symbols. Click ok. Back in the High Performance section, click on the "Strict placement, sorted by" option and then select "Folder/Filename" option from the pull down menu next to it. Leave it as "Asc". Importantly, click on the Options button next to the Folder/File Name back in the left hand pane and tick Respect High Performance (but luncheck Complete High Performance Then Stop). Check "Respect Archive" (but uncheck Complete archive then stop). Check Put Directories Close To MFT. Click ok. Defrag it this way and you will see an outer section coloured Purple. This is your high performance data. Doing this will move your FSX installation onto the outer part of your HDD and sort it alphabetically by "folder/filename" which will speed things up.You can also do the same for your Windows and Program Files folders too. The Archive option is to defrag any other data that you may not use too often. Hope this helps. Pete Smith

The "optimum" defragging of your Hard Drive(s) is one of the most critical thing to "optimizing" FSX's performance, and is one of the few SIGNIFICANT Performance increases you can get for FREE. ( Not new hardware cost !!) It is well worth research the subject, and once again "GOOGLE" is your friend here. Things to look for are "File Placement", "putting folder directories grouped at start of disk", and "MFT size".Size, control and Placement of your SWAP FILE, and defragmenattion of the Swap File is also important. In an idea world, you also want to have FSX on a different Physical drive, to your OS. Lots of stuff out there to read. One thing about FSX -- if you want it to run well, you have to become PC savy, or know someone who is. !!

I used O&O Defrag before. But now I have changed to MyDfrag.It does the about the same thing, but is open and free.Can be tailored via script.Link here: http://www.mydefrag.com /Curt

I use O&O, though I no longer defragment my FS drive, as it is a SSD... ;) I still use O&O to trim the drive though, normally once a week or after installing something new... Andrew

The "optimum" defragging of your Hard Drive(s) is one of the most critical thing to "optimising" FSX's performance, and is one of the few SIGNIFICANT Performance increases you can get for FREE. ( Not new hardware cost !!)

Really! Yes I've heard the advice too. In fact I tested O&O throughly, as did two other people I know. Guess what, none of us could definitively state it made any difference at all, compared to the standard Windows defrag. Snake oil guys. As for the OP's perceived "slight" performance loss... his imagination, or another issue at work. Use the default Windows defrag, it's perfectly adequate, and don't be fooled by the pseudo technical ramblings of those that wish to convince you need anything else.

Really ??? So Nick Needham, at simforums is wrong in his windows 7 tweaking guide then ?

Nick's explains why windows defrag is crap here:http://www.simforums.com/Forums/topic34799_post202329.html#202329

Hello, Some days I degragged my HDD for increased performance in FSX. Immediately after defragging I checked how much space was left on my HDD. Before defragging that was 360 GB, and after defragging 348 GB!? I thought it was supposed to make free space on my HDD. When I started FSX there was also some slight performance loss.I'm using the programm Ultimate Defrag, I'm using the default settings and just click "Analyze", and let it do it's thing. After defragging, the image of my HDD has turned totally green. Are there some specific settings i need to use in order to get the best performance out of FSX? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks in advance,

Various defragmentation/optimisation software uses various methods, including file placement optimisation, to achieve various things. These are theoretical optimums, and depending how you use your machine, this can also actually degrade the system performance. It is absolutely essential to only use ONE defragmentation program. If you use several, then you WILL degrade system performance, and cause massive and unnecessary wear and tear on your drives. Under normal circumstances you will not notice any difference in system performance after defragmenting,if you do it regularly. However, if you do not defragment a drive for a long time, and you do a lot of copying etc, then the system will become noticeably slower, more wear and tear will occur on your drive(s), and they may become noisy as a result of the excessive head movement required to carry out reads/writes on fragmented files. Excessive fragmentation causes read/write timeouts and other errors, and if nothing is done about it, the drive will fail quickly. Excessive DEFRAGMENTATION , using a defragmentation program too often, will not improve system performance, and also causes massive wear and tear on the drive. For example, I defrag my fsx drive about once every 3 or 4 months. However, Iif I was to install a large photoscenery package like Mega Socal, then I would defrag after installation. Furthermore, don't be afraid to use it, and don't over use it.

Why would you want to defrag your HDD? Is this not old school thinking from the days of MS DOS till windows 2000? With the speed our new HDD read and write, how would defragging improve a PC's or the software (FSX) performance? The advantage is not worth the effort, the stress, wear and tear you put on a HDD. Johann

Why would you want to defrag your HDD? Is this not old school thinking from the days of MS DOS till windows 2000? With the speed our new HDD read and write, how would defragging improve a PC's or the software (FSX) performance? The advantage is not worth the effort, the stress, wear and tear you put on a HDD. Johann

By making your texture files contiguous it reduces load times, which has shown a noticeable decrease in stutters in many cases.

Really ??? So Nick Needham, at forums is wrong in his windows 7 tweaking guide then ?

Who knows, I determine these things by my own experience. I don't just accept another's word. All I can say is that me, and two of my colleagues, on a separate forum, followed the instructions to the letter. None of us experienced any improvement whatsoever. Of course it's easy to fool ourselves, but looked at as objectively as possible we expensed no improvement. If you can show me definitive, objective evidence, then go ahead.

Hi, O&O Defrag is recommended for FSX. Download it and use the free trial.

PMDG now recommend Ultimate Defrag as it has better options for file placement.

Why would you want to defrag your HDD? Is this not old school thinking from the days of MS DOS till windows 2000? With the speed our new HDD read and write, how would defragging improve a PC's or the software (FSX) performance? The advantage is not worth the effort, the stress, wear and tear you put on a HDD. Johann

Completely disagree. If you know what you are doing and you use the folder/file method to place your fsx files on the fastest part of the drive, contiguously, there are huge benefits to be had for very little effort. No stress, no hair loss, no effort, no snake oil, just a matter of using the right tool for the job and reading the associated manual. The windows defragger is aweful. No offence, but if you think it is good then you probably don't know much about the process. I defrag every 2-3 weeks or after an install on my fsx drive (scenery, aircraft etc.) Works a charm and is effortless. Edit> to answer the OP, the files were probably installed contiguously, but when you ran the defragger it rearranged them to be non-contiguous. This could cause a drop in performance, but is is unlikey. Please take the time to read through the UD manual and look into Folder/File placement. Move the FSX folder to the outside of the drive (fastest part) and put files that aren't accessed often (photos, documents, vidoes etc) to the inside sectors (slower).

Who knows, I determine these things by my own experience. I don't just accept another's word. All I can say is that me, and two of my colleagues, on a separate forum, followed the instructions to the letter. None of us experienced any improvement whatsoever. Of course it's easy to fool ourselves, but looked at as objectively as possible we expensed no improvement. If you can show me definitive, objective evidence, then go ahead.

But if you defrag on a regular basis, and do not do a lot of file copying/deleting, it would be hard to notice any change in peformance. Only when your HDD get's badly fragmented are you going to notice an increase in read/write performance after defragging.As I stated above, if I was to copy/install a large photoscenery, the first thing I would do is run my defragger, but for general use, it is only necessary as part of maintaing the PC to it;s optimium level. And that includes not over use.