Defraggin your HDD

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by Menehune

I just tried using PM8 to resize a partition and it didn't give a choice for cluster size.

That isn't part of the partition resizing option; you have to use the Advanced -> Resize Clusters option to change the cluster size.

- Andy

[korben_dallas]

Originally Posted by Opus4

That isn't part of the partition resizing option; you have to use the Advanced -> Resize Clusters option to change the cluster size.

- Andy

Andy,

Are you giving out free stuff again?

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by korben_dallas

Are you giving out free stuff again?

Yes! After changing the cluster size on my hard drive, I found that fewer clusters were being used for the same disk space! Therefore, I've got a whole bunch of extra clusters that I no longer need. If you want them, you can have them for free -- they are attached to this post.

- Andy

[aperry]

Wait, I'm confused (what else is new?)... If you increase to 64K clusters, then wouldn't you actually wind up with less disk space? Admittedly, it would be a minor amount compared to the size of the recordings, but it would be less...

Using a smaller size as an example, a 1K file would take 4K normally, but would take 64K with the larger clusters, so you've used up an extra 60K for this small file.

[Opus4]

I just meant that it takes fewer 64K clusters than 4K clusters to allocate all the drive space when partitioning it. But, yes, larger clusters waste more space, especially when you have many small files... which is why it isn't really recommended for general-purpose partitions that may have lots of small files. But, 64K clusters help the PC read the video file fast enough to keep up with the demand of playback, even when the file is heavily fragmented... thus the recomendation for its use on partitions used for recordings.

- Andy

[korben_dallas]

Originally Posted by aperry

Wait, I'm confused (what else is new?)

I was making fun of a different post of Andy's..

[Menehune]

Just checked and PM8 allows resizing of cluster under Partition>advanced>resize clusters. Just resized one of my NTFS partitions from 4K to 64K clusters.

Acronis PE2003 resizes clusters under Disk>advanced>Change cluster size. Also resized a NTFS partiton from 4k to 64k clusters.

[phantomfsoc]

by complete Fluke, just before this thread came out, I decided to defrag my 3 capture drives. I was getting studdering and I'm not crazy about the windows defragger so I got Perfectdisk 7.0. Its a great program. It does take longer to defrag drives cause I find it really does a good job at it. There is even a feature to manage your drives over the network (havn't tried that just yet)
Since most shows are finished their seasons, I decided to shut off sage and just spend a day doing maitainance. Its been at least 2 yrs since I have defragged my drives. So far so good.

The only thing I think might be an issue is using CAYARS STV. It makes all those small xml and Com Skip files so could that have an effect on fragmentation? Just curious