Decided to try UltimateDefrag tonight...

[Tabs 2,790]

I decided to give UltimateDefrag a try tonight after reading a bit more about it, and I'm having some issues with it.Here's what I tried to have it do:Under the High Performance options for my C: drive, I told it to place about 10 folder paths on the outer edge and I also specified 4 file types on the right side - .exe, .dll, .sys (drivers), and .sib, (a file type used by a music editing program I run a lot)This is Vista Home Premium 32bit btw...Under the archive thing I set it to 80% per the instructions in the manual that talk about 80% of your files barely being accessed etc (which I'll bet is true).I checked Respect Layout.ini and then told it to do the Folder/File name defrag type.Here's what I expected to see happen:1. Windows layout.ini files placed first.2. The contents of those 10 folders placed next, with the files in each one ordered by filename.3. All files on the drive of the 4 types not already included in the folders above placed next, ordered by name.4. The rest of the files placed in archive.What happened was nothing close to this. It basically put everything in the archive, including a lot of files that were in those specified folders or of those 4 types. The only stuff on the outer edge was the layout.ini stuff.I tried again with layout.ini disabled and it put absolutely everything in the inner archive tracks. Tried again with Respect Archive off in the options for the defrag type and it put everything on the outer edge this time but not in order and not with the stuff I specified first at the front.What exactly is the hierarchy UD respects as to what gets priority when you set multiple things like this - 10 custom folders, 4 file types, 80% of the least frequently used data in archive. I have no idea what's overriding what. It almost seems like the archive one is taking precedence, which seems really odd to me.Any ideas?

[Glynn 405]

HelloThis defragger is shot full of bugs, nice idea but still only at the level of a beta product.I am back with PerfectDisk.

[jordanal 70]

I haven't used the file-type option yet but have included specific folders. Here is how I set it up for FS partition.Under advance options for the specific drive/partition, I use the custom button to select which folders I want at the beginning (outer rings). Set the Performace percentage to 100%. Under achrive - custom button, choose the folders you want to force to the most inner rings of the partition. Set 0% for archive.Back on the main page, select the partition you just setup and then check the file/folder checkbox. Click on the Options button next to file/folder and select: respect performance, archive, and layout.ini.Back on the main page again, begin defraging this partition. This places my performance selections first (outer rings), followed by all the other file not specifically declared by the Archive selections. Then the inner most rings contain the folders I specifically select to archvie.It actullay works very nicely once you get past the options and wording. Looks cool to watch it defrag in a circle with high-performance I/O too.The real trick is 100% performance, 0% arhive, but selecting folders for each accordingly. I am recalling this off the top of my head from work, so if anyone needs screenies, let me know and I'll post them here this evening.I should mention that I still use Raxco perfect disk for the offline files defrag such as the MFT and page-file as I think it is the best in the area.

[ryanbatc 12,770]

lolUD works perfectly for me....I don't need all that advanced stuff...doesn't gain you much perf...Just place your FSX/9 scenery files on the outer tracks and the rest going in and you will be fine.... and then by /NAME oh I'm 80% high performance forgot to say....I sort my windows drive by NAME, because recency didn't do much for me

[Mace 1,896]

>Hello>This defragger is shot full of bugs, nice idea but still only>at the level of a beta product.>I am back with PerfectDisk.>On what basis to you make this claim?RhettAMD 3700+ (@2585 mhz), eVGA 7800GT 256 (Guru3D 93.71), ASUS A8N-E, PC Power 510 SLI, 2gb Corsair XMS 3-3-3-8 (1T), WD 150 gig 10000rpm Raptor, WD 250gig 7200rpm SATA2, Seagate 120gb 5400 rpm external HD, CoolerMaster Praetorian

[Mace 1,896]

In my case, I simply told UD to put H:FSX and H:SCENERY on the outside.I did not get into the more advanced aspects of the program. All I wanted was to move my FS to the outside, and it did that. Beyond that, I doubt anything else matters with respect to FS performance, and that was all I was interested in.RhettAMD 3700+ (@2585 mhz), eVGA 7800GT 256 (Guru3D 93.71), ASUS A8N-E, PC Power 510 SLI, 2gb Corsair XMS 3-3-3-8 (1T), WD 150 gig 10000rpm Raptor, WD 250gig 7200rpm SATA2, Seagate 120gb 5400 rpm external HD, CoolerMaster Praetorian

[ryanbatc 12,770]

great minds think alike ^ ;)

[Geofa 108]

I have to say I have had bad luck with this product also. About 50% of the time it just stops at some percentage-freezes, and requires a reboot making disk errors which require a scan. One time it ran for almost 5 days and still hadn't got to the 60% mark-where it froze.From what I can tell-there have been problems with Vista Premium (which I have) as the last patch I was able to get seemed to address issues here. Because I have a yahoo mail account I have been unable to get support, my emails have gone unanswered, and I have never been sent a link to get the new updates.So I am not real happy with this product based on how it works on my rig. I can see if it works for one that it would be quite nice though, and I keep hoping.http://mywebpages.comcast.net/geofa/pages/rxp-pilot.jpgForum Moderatorhttp://geofageofa.spaces.live.com/

[Glynn 405]

HelloBased on using the software and seeing it lose its settings over time.Worked fine for me at first but gradually started to not do what the settings told it to do, Directorys that were set up to go to the edge of the disk ended up elsewhere. File types that were set to go to archive ended up on the outer tracks When it comes to very expensive data i prefer solid well proven toolsnot v1.0 releases.But its your data so give it a go by all means.

[jordanal 70]

You guys need to set 100% peformance and 0% archive, even if you select and include "custom" files. Anything else on these percentages will enable the analysis algorthims based on last-file-access to determine where on the platters files get located or even skipped. This is why you're not getting true A-Z file/folder placement which occurs first, within your custom peformance file selection, then all other files, then files selected to be in the archive (inner rings). I have had no trouble on a raid-0, have not lost any settings, nor had any sorting/alphabatizing issues.It works as advertised. I'll post some screen shots in a few minutes.

[jordanal 70]

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. So I hope these help.I have a dedicated FS Partition on my raid-0 mounted on Drive letter e: As you can see, I have good results with UD.http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/177419.jpgFrom the menu selects Tools >> Options and configure it like so:http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/177420.jpgUnder High Performance, click the "Select Files" button and choose your FSX files. You can choose certain FSX specific subfolders or just choose the main FSX folder. If you choose various sub-folders, you can re-arrange their priority in the left pane by dragging them up or down in the list.http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/177421.jpgUnder Archive, click the "Select Files" button and choose any files you want to force to the inner-rings of the partition. You don't have to do this, but I chose to force almost all the other folders. No performance is lost here with these folders and it helps file/folder sorting go faster on subsequent runs.http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/177422.jpgBack on the main UD screen (picture 1) click the radio button next to file/folder. Then click the "Options" button next to file/folder and configure it like so:http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/177423.jpgClick the "Start" button to peform the file/folder defrag. Hope this helps...

[Geofa 108]

Al-Thanks for taking all the trouble to post this. I'll give it a textbook try tonight and see how it works out. Thanks for your helful help!http://mywebpages.comcast.net/geofa/pages/rxp-pilot.jpgForum Moderatorhttp://geofageofa.spaces.live.com/

[jordanal 70]

No problem, I really hope it works for you as well as it does me. Again, I still use Raxco Perfectdisk to perform the offline MFT/Page-file defrags on boot up. UD is really quite cool from the standpoint that you can get very creative in your file/folder sorting to suite your very specific needs.Good luck...

[Tabs 2,790]

Ok I *think* I figured out what's happening here...My layout.ini is 1.8MB and contains a TON of file paths. This is what UD is using, not what I specified. I tried rebuilding the prefetch and layout.ini (which I know MS experts like Mark Russinovich say is a false tweak, but I was just doing it in an attempt to get the layout.ini to just put stuff in there that actually gets used in the boot sequence. Unfortunately it rebuilt it with all the extraneous crap in there again too, so I'm not sure where/how it's getting that information.Anyway, I got it to place the stuff I wanted on the outer edge. Wish I could get a minimal amount of the layout.ini stuff in there before my specified folders though, since that's always gonna be the exact order Windows loads things in.I think I'm gonna try emailing DiskTrix about making exactly what I want to have happen work - I'll decide to buy or not based on their response I guess.

[G7USL 117]

Ryan, after selecting what files you need close the MFD you have to click 'CONSOLIDATE'.This action takes a while to complete but is worth the wait, I can assure you.