FSX Defrag?

[BuzzDatAzz]

Question, how many times.....in lets say a month do you have to defrag to keep FSX running smooth?

Thanks again, and pre-thanks for the answer to the defrag question.

[NickN]

How often do you add things to the install?

Defragging is something that must be done very intensely right after a Windows or major software install. It also needs to be done if you are installing large add-ons too, or, if you do other things with the system besides games and flight sim which require a disk clean up all the time.


Typical defrags when you have not done any major uninstall/install work should be at least once a month under normal use. That also includes flushing the temp files and other garbage off the disk prior to running such maintenance defrags.

When ever you install a large game or add-on you should always reboot, defrag, reboot.

[NickN]

Windows defrag is for slow and doggy business systems. It does not optimize for maximum storage performance. Setting an automatic time for defrags is also adding CPU cycle drain on the system at all times. Tasks like that need not be run everyday.


I can not recommend a defrag program for you because I am not dealing with Vista at all right now. But the Windows supplied defrag is a joke

[uncleyuk]

 I'm running Diskeeper 8 pro on Vista Premium and it's working fine.  It is Payware.

[macca22au]

Nick:  I recall that you mentioned O&O wasn't optimised for Vista.  So I have been using Ultimate Defrag instead.  Frankly I don't think it replicates what you suggest as necessary.  What I plan to do on upgrade, is to have FSX only on my RAID 0 array.  In that case I might be able to confine my defrags to the standard Fragmented files only option - or if I do an Auto, I can reduce the size of the 'least used' files area to close to zero, thereby keeping all files and directories as close as possible to the outer edge.  The problem up until now has been that the defrag places scenery files that haven't been used recently on the inner part of the disc.  As a result, if I decide to fly elsewhere in the world than Australia, the UK and the western US and Canada, the program has to go looking for data that has been placed into a least used location.

I really would like to know of a defrag programme that is known to work in Vista, and which of its options makes most sense in FSX.

[NickN]

That is the exaxt reason why I do not like Ultimate defrag

too many options for the layman to deal with when all that is needed are the files to placed in perfect Complete\Name order on the drive

no fancy bull of moving unused files and directories to the end

All that is needed is a Complete\Name defrag, an offline defrag, and that is it.




I prefer O&O version 8.5 over version 10 because of how it compacts the files, but, I am not screwing around with Vista right now so I have not really benchmarked the difference. O&O version 10 is compatible with Vista and will work with Vista, just like it does with XP. Many are using O&O 10 in Vista and say it works but I have not really sat down and come to any conclusions about it, mainly because I have no interest in Vista until they start getting another service pack geared up later next year.