If you're an FSX fan (Microsoft's latest Flight Sim) you'll know how important it is to maintain maximum performance from your file system (NTFS) and keep running defragmentation process regularly (WinXP or Vista, the same applies). In fact, there are defrag tools out there specific to help out FSX load scenery files faster and more efficiently.
But the real question is: why do Windows users need to defrag at all? On Linux and OS X file defragmentation is not significant (yes it happens but has no real performance impact on the OS) and there is no "defragmentation" process to run. Linux and OS X using a construct called inode to keep track of files. NTFS still relies on a Master File Table (similar to FAT that was created in 1976 for DOS). NTFS is a little smarter than FAT, but still is subject to performance loss due to file fragmentation.
Microsoft were aware of this problem (OS slowing down over time as it get fragmented) and came up with WinFS (back in 2003) which is what is supposed to go into Windows 7 (release eta 2010). All good we think - right?! Wrong, it appears that WinFS is actually going to be yet another layer on top of NTFS -- ugh. This is going to once again slow down the OS with yet another compatibility layer and this one is a pretty core one. So just when we thought Microsoft were listening to what people want from their OS, it turns out they are doing business as usual.
For those of you skipping Vista and hoping Windows 7 will "sort it all out", it doesn't appear to be the case. It was perhaps foolish of me to think that Microsoft could and would be so bold and dump NTFS -- guess constant defraging is still in everyone's future...and for the new version of FS and any game that is heavily reliant on OS file performance, we're just out of luck yet again.
But the real question is: why do Windows users need to defrag at all? On Linux and OS X file defragmentation is not significant (yes it happens but has no real performance impact on the OS) and there is no "defragmentation" process to run. Linux and OS X using a construct called inode to keep track of files. NTFS still relies on a Master File Table (similar to FAT that was created in 1976 for DOS). NTFS is a little smarter than FAT, but still is subject to performance loss due to file fragmentation.
Microsoft were aware of this problem (OS slowing down over time as it get fragmented) and came up with WinFS (back in 2003) which is what is supposed to go into Windows 7 (release eta 2010). All good we think - right?! Wrong, it appears that WinFS is actually going to be yet another layer on top of NTFS -- ugh. This is going to once again slow down the OS with yet another compatibility layer and this one is a pretty core one. So just when we thought Microsoft were listening to what people want from their OS, it turns out they are doing business as usual.
For those of you skipping Vista and hoping Windows 7 will "sort it all out", it doesn't appear to be the case. It was perhaps foolish of me to think that Microsoft could and would be so bold and dump NTFS -- guess constant defraging is still in everyone's future...and for the new version of FS and any game that is heavily reliant on OS file performance, we're just out of luck yet again.