However, this view doesn't take into account the fact that defragger utilities are also written by file system experts, and their own algorithms are obviously honed and polished by practical tests with real-world systems.
They also imply that the utility developers are conning the public, because this approach undermines attempts by both drive and operating system to place the data according to their own internal algorithms. Some commentators claim that multiple platters and large caches mean that defragger utilities that gather together all the fragments of long files into one neat area will automatically result in worse performance.
A drive may also feature cache memory of 8MB or more, which can also affect the issue of optimum file placement, because some of the required data may already be present in the cache (although reading and writing audio files nearly always results in large files that will soon swamp any cache). Many large, modern drives contain multiple platters and four or more read/write heads, so we can't always visualise our files as being best laid-out neatly in one area of one platter - indeed, it may sometimes be preferable to have a single file spread over several platters, so that it's easily accessible to several read heads almost simultaneously.
#Executive software diskkeeper windows#
While your Windows partition may benefit from regular attention, drives containing audio and particularly video files may benefit even more, because they are not only much larger but also more likely to be regularly edited during a project, resulting in further fragmentation. However, if you're maintaining large unpartitioned hard drives holding vast amounts of data, fragmentation can become an increasingly important issue.
#Executive software diskkeeper Pc#
If you adopt the outer 'Current Project' partition and inner 'Project Backups' partition arrangement that I suggested in last month's PC Musician, before you start on any new project you'll be able to delete the entire contents of the outer partition, so that it starts with a clean slate and no fragmentation, for maximum performance. General file access can also be smoother. This means that Windows only has to look in one place for each file, which can help its performance, by avoiding unnecessary read/write head activity, and can result in both Windows and its applications loading more quickly. As you carry on deleting and saving files, and particularly as your drive fills up beyond 70 percent or so of its total capacity, fragmentation may get worse.ĭefragmenting the contents of your hard drive involves locating all the parts of each fragmented file and bringing them back together, by saving the now contiguous data to another more suitable location on the drive. Reading such a file takes longer than reading one stored in a single piece, as the read/write heads have the additional travel time of jumping from the end of one fragment to the beginning of the next before continuing to read its data. What's Fragmentation?īecause Windows saves data wherever it can on your hard drives, often in unused gaps between other saved files, some files may end up in several scattered fragments. However, during the course of my research I discovered so many conflicting opinions on the actual merits of hard drive defragmentation - ranging from those who recommend 'defragging' after every recording session to those who never do it at all, claiming either that it's unnecessary or that it can even degrade performance - that I decided to explore the whole subject in more detail, with the needs of the musician in mind. Noticing these queries, I thought that I'd investigate a few such utilities and report back with my findings, as part of a more general roundup of software that proves particularly handy for the PC musician. Fragmented hard disk data as represented in the Perfect Disk defragmentation utility.ĭoes defragmenting your hard drives, including the ones you use for recording audio, really result in better PC performance? Opinion is divided, so we take a considered look at the subject, as well as testing some of the most suitable 'defragger' utilities.ĭefragmentation is essentially the art of rearranging files on your hard drives to enhance performance, and there are regular queries on the SOS Forums from people asking what is the best 'defragger' utility.
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