Feature request

[Jarige]

First off all, Defraggler is cool! I just love CCleaner and Defraggler! (Didn't try the other 1, but that one looks great either)

 

I've got a USB flash drive (2GB), and its nearly full. There are many big files (over 30 MB) which are fragmented, and can't be defragmented because there's not enough free space. My idea was, that defraggler would 'cut and paste' those files to the hard disk so there'll be more space to defragment. Defraggler will then try to defragment the other files and make defragmented free space for the files that are on the hard disk. Then the files are changed back to the flash drive by defraggler.

 

With this function, it will save me a lot off time doing it manually. I once cut all the files, and pasted them on the hard disk, then cut and paste them back. It has the same result, but its much slower.

Of course there's the option to just cut and paste the files to the harddisk yourself, and then transfer them back when free space is defragmented. Problem with that, is that free space isn't always defragmented good enough. This system allows defraggler to know how much space must be available for the files.

 

I just wrote this while defragging my flash drive with the newest release (1.03.093) and I noticed a lot off improvement (I used 1.01 or something before).

I must tell that I am amazed, it defragmented my flash drive completely while there's 2% of free space! (Although it took a little long)

The new version is great, but this little option will improve the next release I hope

 

Edit: The subtitle should be changed to 'Copy files from USB to HDD too defrag faster'

Forgot to change it...

 

Greetings,

 

Jarige

[Ramzy]

Quick tip --

 

You can actually "defrag" your USB by cutting ALL of the files off of it, then throwing them back on. The USB drive will become fully compacted and all extra fragments will be removed.

[Jarige]

That was exactly what I didn't want to do. What if you've got a USB drive of 16 GB nearly full? You wouldn't want to copy and paste that manually!

It just saves a lot of time this way, thats what I wanted to make clear...

[thm]

...there isn't really any point in defragging a USB Flash drive, since it doesn't improve

the performance and can only wear it out more quickly, as Flash drives have a limited

number of write cycles.

 

The main reason for defragging a hard disk is to bring the data close together in

order to minimise the latencies introduced by having to move the read/write head

(known as "seek time").

 

But Flash drives are all solid state: there are no moving parts to move, hence no associated

latencies, hence defragging won't improve performance.

 

As it happens, most Flash drives use a technique called "wear levelling" to deliberately remap

the logical write locations to different physical locations in order to even out the wear on the drive.

So, even if the drive "looks" defragmented (e.g. by looking at it with Defraggler), the actual

file data may be scattered all over the place.

 

-thm

[Jarige]

Hmm, never looked at it that way. You're absolutely right I guess, so that makes this feature a bit useless

Ah well, at least I won't need to spend time defragging my flash drive, so thats solved, thank you!

 

By the way, it might work on nearly full hard disks, but there are less of those I guess...

[websquad]

... But Flash drives are all solid state: there are no moving parts to move, hence no associated latencies, hence defragging won't improve performance. ...

This confirms what I've heard elsewhere: defragging a SSD will not improve performance. However, I've also heard that since defragging will move all the date together, and since SSD will support only a finite number of read/write operations, defragging SSD could conceivably reduce the life of the circuits.

 

So, unless proven otherwise, my Netbook (with two 16GB SSD's) will remain fragmented!

[Aethec]

...Necroposting, anyone ? This topic is one year old...