Bad Experience With Ultimate Defrag. Anyone else?

[kiwiflyer45 123]

I have been using Ultimate Defrag. At first it seemed to work as advertized but over time my hard drive has become more and more fragmented until it has reached 64%. I have tried every option the program offers and have even tried using the default Windows defrag. In each case, it either aborts the defrag or says it has been completed but then shows the same 64% and a sea of red rectangles on the graphic display showing fragmented files. My texture loading times in FS are starting to show a significant decline in performance.

 

I have tried contacting their support staff but have had no replies after numerous attempts. I wondered if any members can give me some advice? My worst-case scenario is to format the disk and do a complete reinstall. I get stomach cramps just thinking about it! :-)

Cheers

Ian

[HeavyFlyer 0]

Ian,

         I can offer a comparison since I did use at one time Ultimate Defrag. Had a different issue with the software and a friend recommended O & O defrag from a German developer. Works fantastic, this might be a end run around the problem, but I would run the Check disc feature in Windows to make sure that the hard drive(s) aren't a source of the problem. BTW I love the DF 727 in FS9.

 

  http://www.oo-software.com/en/products/oodefrag

[Don t moderate me this way 882]

Ian,

 

I've been using UD 3 (not the current v4) for quite some time now. I use it regularly (once a month, maybe) and throw in an extra run after installing a heap of files (like 2-5 GB).

 

I'd use the "consolidate" option (with a number of user-defined secondary settings) and have that same configuration running on every single occasion.

 

A general problem for any defrag software is the amount (percentage) of free capacity remaining. For Windows defrag they say it should be 15% at least.

 

Is your HD nearly filled, maybe?

 

Second suggestion would be to have the "consolidate" option run at least, say, 3 consecutive times.

 

 

 

EDIT:

 

More replies if the admins moved this topic to a more appropriate forum, maybe?

[tunnelcat 1]

I'm running Ultimate Defrag and it's working fine. It is a very complicated program to use though and it took me awhile to get a system going I like. What options do you have set? In the "Settings" section, I'm using the High Performance Option with Custom [select Files], sorted in the order I want them on the drive and then I make sure select Strict Placement, Sorted by [DEFAULT]. This will make sure the folders are sorted in the way you actually listed them. In the "Options" section next to the Defragment Mode, I checked "Respect High Performance" and "Respect Archive" (which places all my preselected rarely used files to the center of the drive to get them out of the way) and "Put Directories Close to the MFT" (for faster file table lookups).

 

My only caveat with this program is that it really stresses the drive because of all the file moving around. I've heard of people complaining that this program trashed their drive. So what I did was have one drive specifically dedicated for FSX because it's so huge of a program. I sorted the folders to put the textures and other scenery and weather at the top of the list and the first part of the drive. Then I put FSX after that. Once I get everything defragged, I rarely run the full job again. What I usually do is then run "Fragmented Files Only" and that's very quick and doesn't do a lot of moving of files around.

[kiwiflyer45 123]

Thanks for both replies. I do have plenty of drive space. It's a 1 Tg drive and the only things on it are FS9 and related programs.

I will try your suggestions. I feel like I've tried "everything" but probably not! :-) So again, thanks for the suggestions

Ian

[Sara Louise Capon 21]

worth trying first,

run as Administrator, Command prompt (Start Menu - All Programs - Accessories - Command Prompt, right click on it, run as Administrator.)

then good old chkdsk (Drive Letter): /x /f

 

/x is dismount (no point if it's the root drive ie: C:)

/f is fixdisk

 

you might have some damaged sectors, or files.

this should fix it, then run defrag after

[ematheson 19]

You're not the only one. It lost my scenery folder one time. Unrecoverable - it simply forgot that portion of the file table and overwrote it. That forced a reinstall!