Hi all you FSX Pilots

 

This is a topic that is very rarely talked about. Defraging your C: drive. What happens when each time you turn on your computer to do any thing the data is wrote back to the hard drive and finds the easiest and fastest way to write back to the drive. Think of it as a stream of water, when it flows it will flow in it's least resistant path. Same goes for data; it will be wrote back to the hard drive the same way. After uninstalling and reinstalling and writing back to to the hard drive data becomes " defrangmented" meaning scattered all over the drive and as this goes on the system starts to slow down. With FSX this is constantly going on because as you fly the FSX is looking for data and writeing in a the fastest way. Faster drives come on the market and you can have the greatest drive made but it still needs to be defrangmented bringing all the data back to the program that the data belongs to. This will make the hard drive work not as hard and you will retrive the data quicker.

 

This how you can defrag your hard drive. In the lower bottom left corner of your desktop you will see a Window icon. Left button click on it. You will then see the cursor flashing in the command box. Type this into that box " defrag" WITHOUT THE QUOTES. You will then get the program called " Disk Defrangmenter". Right click that sellection and send it to the desktop as a shortcut.

 

Now double click the short cut and the program will open and show the drives that can be defraged. Click on the C:drive " Then click on Analyze Disk" and this will tell you how much the drive is fragmented. The drive you should be interested in is the C: drive. This is where your FSX is located at for the mass majority. I defrag my drive every two weeks or if I uninstall - reinstall or fly alot. Or if it is 3% or more.

 

Les :hi:

I agree with the need to regularly defrag you drives for better performance. Here's a link for a free defragger wich I find provides a better result than then standard windows defragger:

http://www.auslogics.com/en/software/disk-defrag/download/

 

Harro

Why is OO Defrag seen to be the best defragger?

I use disktrix defragmenter. Works well and have an automatic scheduler set up to defrag each of my hdds and ssd weekly.

ssd weekly.

 

Absolutely no need to defrag an SSD. In fact SSD manufacturer's recomend not to. Defragging a mechanical HDD makes it easier for the head on an HDD to find data thus speeding it up. Of course with an SSD there is no head. In fact all its doing is reducing its life due to unnecessary R/W cycles.

Thanks for your insight. I'll modify my schedules to reflect your information.

Thanks for your insight. I'll modify my schedules to reflect your information.

 

Ive noticed O&O has some kind of option to defragg or optimize the SSD. I cant understand why? I understand alighning it when new. So its easy to believe you should.

Hello All,

 

I've used multiple defrag utilities over the years both free and commercial.

For those with the means ($30-$40) the Raxco products are truly the best I've come across.

http://www.raxco.com/home/home-premium.aspx

 

I've used their PerfectDisk utility on every computer I have owned for the past 7 years with stellar results.

(For the record...I don't work for Raxco)

This is one of those cases where you really do get what you pay for.

Thanks,

Philip

 

Ive noticed O&O has some kind of option to defragg or optimize the SSD. I cant understand why? I understand alighning it when new. So its easy to believe you should.

 

O&O just manually runs the TRIM command on SSDs, it isn't doing a defrag in the same sense as it does on a hard drive.

 

 

Ah. thanks

I don't think there is any need to defragment SSD's since there is no delay in accessing distant memory locations as opposed to concurrent ones. Since memory cells have a limited life span that is measured in write operations defragging would actually be a bad idea.

I haven't defragged my C: drive for about a year because it takes too long, i think it was about 7 hours (?) last time.

Is that normal or can we speed it up somehow?

I haven't defragged my C: drive for about a year because it takes too long, i think it was about 7 hours (?) last time.

Is that normal or can we speed it up somehow?

 

LOL. Now think about that for a moment. Just curious, what % is your drive fragmented?

Hi everyone,

 

Just for information the defrag program that I am referring to is the free defrag program in Windows itself and no need for purchase andis a personal thing. If it takes 7 hours to defrag a drive that drive is badly in need of a defrag. On SSD drives there may not be a need for a defrag. But to clear it up for everyone if you have a conventional drive you have a read write head that jumps around on the disk platter that is looking for data and writeing data. This is hard on the drive and you should try and minimise the ware and tare on the drive. You will be extending your drives life and $$$. Defraging goes way back in time and when backing up files were a lot of work and time. No one did it until they lost information they really needed; and after that they find a way to back up their files but it's to late. Just trying to help everyone out and enjoy FSX for a long time to come now that we can run it in DX10 preview which I might say is nothing less than great. As said the SSD is a memory drive like a ram drive or a flash drive which is run by memory, no moving parts. That is the reason that SSD drives were made, but there are issues with them also. They are super fast but the longevity is a lot shorter than a conventional drive.

 

Les :hi:

Defragging too much can also wear out your HDD. Every few months is ample,and avoid using windows defragger. NickN has a guide @ simmforums which explains in depth.

http://www.simforums.com/forums/topic34141_post198187.html#198187