[Rodster]

Hi
On my new computer running XP I can't find scandisk. Did they do away with it and if so what did they replace it with?
Rodster( who misses Win 98 ):question:

 

[guest]

i tihnk its under my computer right click on the c drive go to the tools tab... error checking..



I never do it, that or defrag.. takes too long..

 

[Rodster]

Thanks John
You are Da Man.
Rodster

 

[steventhomas42]

Originally posted by simple_john
I never do it, that or defrag.. takes too long..

Brrr.... as a techie, I can tell you your system is slowing down as we speak.

It does take 4ever to run on today's large drives. I kick mine off once a month at night after I'm finished online.

A hint, disable your screensaver B4 you do it, or it will restart all night. Turn off your monitor after it starts (since the screensaver is no longer protecting it).

Steve

 

[Rodster]

My hard drive is 160GB on the new one. it may take days.
Rodster

 

[tisenberg]

defrag will not really touch the whole 160 drive if it is not filled. The concept of defrag is to gather up the pieces and parts of files that are strewn throughout the drive and to clump them together in a continuous row so that the hard drive can read the whole file in one sweep instead of potentially having to revolve around a few times. Defrag can also put files that don't change often in the begining writing area and the files that change the most on the outter writing area. There are a few techniques that are used.

scandisk is pretty much to check for bad spots (kinda) on the drive as well as any bad file mappings.

Its hard to say which will take longer... defrag or scandisk. I think it depends on the amount of data you have stored on the disk, how much free space, how fragmented, etc.

It's really not a bad idea to run either of them every so often. Defrag will only help if you are updating files on the hard drive on a regular basis. Scandisk, just because in general, things can go bump in the night

 

[steventhomas42]

Originally posted by tisenberg
Defrag will only help if you are updating files on the hard drive on a regular basis. Scandisk, just because in general, things can go bump in the night

Yes, but you have to remember that we are all web surfers. The fact that you are on the Internet means you are constantly down-loading new files and, thus, are fragmenting your hard drive. Plus, Windows writes a whole lot of files just for normal operation.

You can go into the properties of your web browser and delete temporary files first, but the drive itself is still fragmented.

I had a user contact me who literally has never installed any new software since she bought her PC, never intentionally downloads stuff (like mp3s) off the 'net, and never "creates" any documents. All she does is surf the web and play solitaire. After deleting her temporary Internet files, it still took took over two hours to defrag her system.

Once you begin writing to the drive, the files you write and the files Windows creates will become fragmented. The original OS and Application files should stay intact, but the other stuff will fragment.

Windows 2000 & XP are both based on the NT engine. In the early days, MS didn't admit that NT fragmented. Later they licensed Executive Software's Diskeeper and repackaged it as the new Defragmenter.

I'd do it at least once a month. It'll take longer the first time, but the subsequent runs will be faster.

Defragging extends the physical life of your hard drive, as the read/write heads have to be moved around more to access a fragmented file than they do for a contiguous file. That's the "chicka-chicka-chicka" sound you hear coming from your computer when you are doing stuff. It's a mechanical actuator arm, and it will eventually go "chicka-chicka-THUNK". Defragging postpones that eventuality.

HTH,

Steve

 

[Durwood]

Wow , thanks for the info Steve. I'll start defragging mine more often.


:homereat:

 

[tisenberg]

fragmentation only happens when a file is being written that is larger than the sector it is being written too. If the sector size is 1024 and you write a 512 file, half of the sector will not be written to. If a new file is 1025, one sector will be full and the next will only have a byte in it. Generally, if you are writing the whole file at once, it will usually get written to the next free sector and will most of the time be the next, which in turn means no fragmentation. If you open a 1024 file and add 1 byte to it, god knows where it will end up.

 

[RockyJSquirrel]

The defrag program was so well buried on my WinXP, I created a shortcut on the desktop for it. The XP defrag is much simpler and faster than the Win98 defrag program. The only substantial buildup I get that requires defragmentation is from the 'restore' program. I run it every 1-2 months, takes 5-10 minutes.