Defrag Question

[Mobius]

I just got through installing FSX and a few other programs, and I bought O&O Defrag to do my defragging from now on.  I did a few defrags with O&O, and I get the report here: http://s15.photobucket.com/albums/a369/ ... roblem.jpg

It says I have 42.80% fragmentation, and it shows that all the fragmented files are 'System Volume Information' files, which are the files used by System Restore (if I'm not mistaken).  Now, I don't really want to turn system restore off, and from what I understand, it uses 10-12% of your disk space to store these files, which would be about 72GB on my system, which apparently can't be defragged.  My question is, is this going to cause my system to have to slog through this crud, or can I just ignore that in future defrags?  I really don't like having it tell me that I have over 40% fragmentation. Tongue

Thanks.

P.S.  I'm running Vista x64.

[ctjoyce]

Well the 40% of fragmentation that is being caused by system restore will end up causing the PC to chug through it anytime it goes to look for anything on that sector of the hard drive. Also it isn't going to take 72GB of your drive, just what you allot it to.

My recommendation is just turn the dang service off because 9 times out of 10 any problem you have can be fixed faster through safe mode and that 10th time you end up in safe mode or reinstalling the OS anyway. You will get your system space and performance back by shrugging an absolutely useless tool. If you need a "go back" agent, Symentic Go back coupled with a nice sized external hard drive is a much better way to go.

Cheers
Cameron

[NickN]

Turn system restore completely off in settings service and profile boot and let it dump the current backups and reboot. Unless Vista is marking the HDD permanently that should clear the allocated space. Run the SPACE defrag after all of your software is completely installed NOT before, then after all the maintenance is done, turn SR back on

Theoretically that will move the allocated space for SR outside the critical file zone after the files have been defragged.

Theoretically

and that will start a new System Restore point too so you will lose everything up to that point for recovery

You can do the same thing with the page file. If you set it to zero, reboot run a SPACE defrag and then reset the page file to a static size, that should move it out of the critical file zone.

however I do agree with Cam. SR is one of the biggest resource hogs there is. Those who turn that off all together and can live without it, get a nice boost in OS/disk performance

[Mobius]

Thanks guys, that's what I was looking for. [smiley=thumbsup.gif]

[sonic]

If I turn off the SR which I have can I get rid of the recovery drive (partition) that vista creates I am new to vista and havent really got used to what I can do and what I cant yet like I could with xp.

[ctjoyce]

The recovery partition that OEM's creat can be gotten rid of, but by reformatting it then adding the space back on to your current partition. You can use PartitionMagic or a good amount of DOS work for this to happen.

That recovery partition is just a ISO of the Vista disk along with your manufactures drivers and basic apps disk, and the idea is that you can reinstall back to factory settings if you screw it up badly.

So to answer your question.... no the recovery partition will remain intact regardless of the state of SR.

Cheers
Cameron

[Allen_Z]

How/where do you turn SR off? I have Vista Home Premium.

Nevermind, found it.  ;D