Question on defragging

Noughtboy

Noughtboy

Noughtboy

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Good morning,

Recently had cause to format my HDD and been reinstalling data.

In between, I have been doing defrags using Piriform Defraggler.

I used to used Defraggler as my standard program until moving into Windows 10 at which point I used the built in one.

Now, two files were fragmented. 2 mp3 totalling 5.9MB

It took 17 minutes to do the one and was anticipating 1h45 to complete as I noticed that Defraggler was moving things which had already been optimised a couple days earlier.

Is this a case of being pedantic because a few new files were added (probably totalling 25MB) so it decided to optimise about 700GB based on the new files or inefficient?

Should I just stick with the Windows 10 version which didn't seem to second guess itself every second defrag or can someone suggest another option?

Thanks

NB

Edit: Not that it should make a real difference but it was formatted NTFS in 16k blocks as this is primarily media (photos, video and music) and making the blocks bigger didn't significantly increase performance in a speed test.
 
Sorry, perhaps I wasn't clear enough. I don't mind if a few files are fragmented. The question was that Windows built in software is a lot quicker...so is it missing a trick or is Defraggler thorough to the point of being pedantic i.e. it would perform a defreg and then if something new was added could literally defrag by moving the entire contents around putting undue wear on the HDD by moving things for the sake of moving things.

Perhaps it is analysing usage of software and moving programs/files used more often to the outer edge etc and Windows just puts files in contiguous blocks.

That is what I am trying to get to the bottom of. Is Windows built in software good enough and Defraggler too smart for it's own good by perhaps shaving loading times by a few milliseconds at the expense of additional wear everytime I add a file?
 
Hi everyone. Thanks for your input. It is a mechanical HDD (2TB). I know not to defrag SSD's and to let TRIM do it's thing.

I am not worried enough to lose sleep over this. It was more a "what is the difference in approach" to the two programs. I used to solely use Defraggler but noticed that it would often move the entire drive around when new data was added. I tend to only defrag every month or so. So, when I got Windows 10 installed a couple years back, I partitioned using Windows instead of the Auslogics or Piriform equivalent. Since then I used the Windows inbuilt defraggler. I noticed that it was quicker and I suppose begged the existential question I posed on efficiency. Is it just doing the bare minimum and therefore isn't really that good or is Defraggler taking itself way too seriously and taking things to the nth degree.

I am not sure that the Defraggler approach is worth the time and difference in performance if it is putting the HDD under additional stress by moving more than it should or that Windows is doing enough so was asking the hive.

On a separate but related issue, the 2TB HDD is now reading a constant 46C under HWinfo64. This is current/min/max/average when it used to be around the 28C-32C mark. I have added a 1TB drive below it which is currently reading 29C with min/max 18/30. So, I am wondering if a SMART sensor could be be shorted/misreading as it seems very high (compared to last week as an example with warmer weather). Surely the HDD below cannot be upping the air above it by 17C especially considering that there are a couple of fans blowing directly onto them.

NB
 
bremen1874 said:
Without seeing it we have no way of knowing how closely the drives are stacked or what the airflow is like.

Swap the drive positions and see if the 1TB gets hotter and the 2TB cooler.
Click to expand...

Problem solved. When the problem didn't resolve with a data reset I shut down HWInfo and upon restarting it, everything is fine. Drive temp is back to normal (25C-28C). Wierd one as the other drives were updating as was all the other info.

[/QUOTE] Have you ever noticed a real-world difference before/after defragging?

With defragging, it's very much a case of diminishing gains. The quick automated defrag that Windows does automatically seems to be perfectly adequate.[/QUOTE]

On files that are heavily fragmented, yes especially as it is a media drive i.e. 5400 rpm
 
Semple said:
It sounds as though defraggler is taking more of a ruthless approach to defragging.

There's going to be a trade off between the defrag performance and how much wear on the disks the defragging causes.

I would just leave windows to choose when it needs to do a defrag.
Click to expand...

That is what I decided to do in the end. There is "excellent" and "good enough". Seeing as I don't want to unduly wear the drive, will settle for good enough.

Thank you everyone for your input
 
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