TrueCrypt fragmentation question

slipd · 29 Oct 2011 at 09:57

Hi guys,

Is it usual for a truecrypt container to be so fragmented (and impossible to defrag!) after very little use? I've been messing about with 20gb container with about 5gb of data in it for the past week or so and according to auslogics disk defrag its 88% fragmented - and it doesn't change after you've defraged it :confused:

Thanks.

Ash-Lee · 30 Oct 2011 at 18:38

It's filled with random 'noise'.

I would have thought an encrypted container by design would not have any form of noticeable file structure.

Mattus · 30 Oct 2011 at 22:10

What are you trying to defrag? The physical drive with the container file on it, or the actual container volume itself?

If the former, it's probably not being defragged because most defraggers won't bother defragging a file where the fragments are bigger than a certain size (commonly 64MB).

If the latter, then it's pointless to defrag because the sectors in the volume won't correspond with physical sectors on the disk.

slipd · 31 Oct 2011 at 20:13

Mattus said:
What are you trying to defrag? The physical drive with the container file on it, or the actual container volume itself?

If the former, it's probably not being defragged because most defraggers won't bother defragging a file where the fragments are bigger than a certain size (commonly 64MB).

If the latter, then it's pointless to defrag because the sectors in the volume won't correspond with physical sectors on the disk.

I'm just trying to defrag the drive that the container is on - it doesn't seem possible though? I shouldn't notice any performance decrease because of it should I :confused:

CaptainCrash · 31 Oct 2011 at 21:25

sam.wheale said:
I'm just trying to defrag the drive that the container is on - it doesn't seem possible though? I shouldn't notice any performance decrease because of it should I

Have you tried killing any running Truecrypt processes before trying to defrag the drive?

I'm not sure how Auslogics goes about its business (don't have much time for third-party snake oil defraggers), but maybe it's having trouble if Truecrypt has a lock on the container file.

slipd · 31 Oct 2011 at 21:31

I don't have truecrypt running when I do a defrag. Like you say, maybe its my choice of defragger that's the issue? I'll try a different one

Thanks.