TIP: Have you defragged lately?

[Doug Nelson]

As (most of) you all know, image editing is about the most system-intensive tasks you can ask of your computer. It both requires a system working at peak efficiency and will also do its best to knock your system's efficiency way down.

The easiest and best thing you can do to address both these concerns is regular (at least weekly) hard disk defragmentation. This is pretty common knowledge, but I thought I'd pass it along here just in case.

No matter what your operating system, over time individual files get "fragmented" and strewn about your hard drive. Seeking out these pieces so you can view or edit them slows things down. To this end most OSs come with a "defragmentation" utility (although commercially available substitutes can offer advantages over the 'built-in' variety).

I'd suggest running this at least weekly, even if its own analysis suggests you don't need to. An added bonus for Windows users is that a system scan to find the most-accessed files is performed, and the files used most are moved to the inner rings of your disk for fastest access.

If you haven't defragged in awhile, the performance increase can be startling. And if you defrag weekly (you might even want to set this up automatically) you'll keep this increase permanently.

[chris h]

If your running defrag over a 98 OS I find hitting Ctrl-Alt-Del and kill everything except Systray and Explorer will speed things a little.
Do you use a 3rd party defrag program Doug. I used to use one but alas it disappeared in the great crash of 99, can't remember what it was called.

[George]

I use my computer for image work and defrag every Sunday night, to get ready for the coming week. I was not happy with the program that came with Windows 98SE, so I purchased VOPT Millennium Edition 6.01. Have been very happy with it, does a good job and is fast.

George

[Doug Nelson]

Advanced Defragging 201

Yes, defragging is best done with all other programs exited (and it takes a long time, so you might want to exit the room while it works, as well). Any time the hd is 'read' (ie: any other program or you access the hd) the defrag will stop and start all over.

I use and endorse the Norton Utilities defragger for Windows, with one caveat: after I upgraded to Windows2000 it seemed to lose all its advantages over the native Windows utility, and add an actual inconvenience or two along the way. I don't know about its XP incarnation.

[Ed_L]

I don't know much about computers, but I do know that running defrag helps a lot, especially if your computer freezes up like mine does.

Ed

[George]

I was using Nortons defrag for a while, and it was faster than the one that came with windows 98SE. When I moved to the new program, I found it to be much faster. It takes me about 3 to 4 minutes to defrag my 38 Gig HD when it is 2% frag. It has 3.5 Gigs of files on it.

I agree it is better to shut down all the other programs when you defrag.

George

[chris h]

I used to be a Norton Utilities fan it was very good at resurrecting
floppies that were playing up. But now I'm wary of these progs that infiltrate your OS and as said the utilities within present OS have eclipsed the likes of Norton, plus the fact I've had some major swordplay with Norton Antivirus which I wouldn't recommend to anyone.

George that prog you mention seems pretty quick although if your defraging every week it'll have less work to do. I set things going at bedtime and let it get on with it. Took about 2 hrs at the last count for about 60 ghz but I shunt more data onto CDr nowadays.
I usually do a clean install of the operating system about every six months to get rid of all the rubbish. I might add that this is sometimes not from choice major crashes having been caused by any number of things. None of which were my fault of course.