Running Check Disk and Disk Defrag

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (More info?)

Hello. I have a PC running XP Home SP2.

According to the Microsoft URL below, it is advisable to run Check Disk
weekly if you use your PC daily, and Disk Defrag monthly, although more
often in certain circumstances. Does that sound like a good time schedule?
I realize there is no "official" answer to these questions, just wondering
if the schedule seems reasonable.
http://www.microsoft.com/atwork/getstarted/speed.mspx#EKAA

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (More info?)

This is reasonable. It's always good to do some routine maintenance. It's a
good idea to run check disk weekly. This way (hopefully) check disk will
catch any disk problems before they become severe. Defragging is not really
much of an issue any more. NTFS handles file management much better then MS
Dos did (does). A suggestion would be to run disk check first before you do
a defrag. Hope this helps.

Gerry


"History Fan" wrote:

> Hello. I have a PC running XP Home SP2.
>
> According to the Microsoft URL below, it is advisable to run Check Disk
> weekly if you use your PC daily, and Disk Defrag monthly, although more
> often in certain circumstances. Does that sound like a good time schedule?
> I realize there is no "official" answer to these questions, just wondering
> if the schedule seems reasonable.
> http://www.microsoft.com/atwork/getstarted/speed.mspx#EKAA
>
>
>

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (More info?)

History Fan wrote:

> Hello. I have a PC running XP Home SP2.
>
> According to the Microsoft URL below, it is advisable to run Check
> Disk weekly if you use your PC daily, and Disk Defrag monthly,
> although more often in certain circumstances. Does that sound like a
> good time schedule? I realize there is no "official" answer to these
> questions, just wondering if the schedule seems reasonable.
> http://www.microsoft.com/atwork/getstarted/speed.mspx#EKAA


I hardly ever run chkdsk unless I have a problem I'm aware of. Regarding
defragging, there's no answer that's right for everyone. It depends on how
you use your computer and it depends on how much you use your computer.


You should defragment your drive when doing so results in a speed up. Here's
what I recommend. Pick some arbitrary interval--for example once a month.
Defragment on that interval a few times, and assess whether the computer
generally feels faster after doing so. If the answer is yes, defrag more
frequently. If the answer is no, defrag less frequently.



Repeat a few times, and you'll soon settle into a frequency that works well
for you.


--
Ken Blake
Please Reply to the Newsgroup

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (More info?)

"History Fan" <Unknownplaces@unknown11.com> wrote in message
news:%23QFKnbAqFHA.2592@TK2MSFTNGP12.phx.gbl...
> Hello. I have a PC running XP Home SP2.
>
> According to the Microsoft URL below, it is advisable to run Check Disk
> weekly if you use your PC daily, and Disk Defrag monthly, although more
> often in certain circumstances. Does that sound like a good time
> schedule? I realize there is no "official" answer to these questions, just
> wondering if the schedule seems reasonable.
> http://www.microsoft.com/atwork/getstarted/speed.mspx#EKAA

Personally, I'll run Check Disk ONLY when I suspect a problem or before I
defragment, and I might defragment my disk about twice a year, if that
often.

Regards,

Carl

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (More info?)

NTFS is designed to be able to detect disk problems and protect your data
for you. If you suspect a problem, then run it, otherwise it's not
necessary. I generally say to defrag every two to three months. Again,
this depends greatly on how you use your pc. If you'd a hardcore user
that's constantly adding/deleting files both large and small, then you may
need to defrag more often. Just remember running defrag too often can
reduce the life expectancy of your drive.

--
Posted 'as is'. If there are any spelling and/or grammar mistakes, they
were a direct result of my fingers and brain not being synchronized or my
lack of caffeine.

Mike Brearley


"History Fan" <Unknownplaces@unknown11.com> wrote in message
news:%23QFKnbAqFHA.2592@TK2MSFTNGP12.phx.gbl...
> Hello. I have a PC running XP Home SP2.
>
> According to the Microsoft URL below, it is advisable to run Check Disk
> weekly if you use your PC daily, and Disk Defrag monthly, although more
> often in certain circumstances. Does that sound like a good time
> schedule? I realize there is no "official" answer to these questions, just
> wondering if the schedule seems reasonable.
> http://www.microsoft.com/atwork/getstarted/speed.mspx#EKAA
>

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (More info?)

On Tue, 23 Aug 2005 10:32:02 -0700, GerryS
<GerryS@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:

>A suggestion would be to run disk check first before you do
>a defrag.

Why? Last time I ran defrag, unless I'm remembering wrong, it
automatically checked the disk itself before starting the defrag.

--
Stan Brown, Oak Road Systems, Tompkins County, New York, USA
http://OakRoadSystems.com/
"My theory was a perfectly good one. The facts were misleading."
-- /The Lady Vanishes/ (1938)

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (More info?)

On Tue, 23 Aug 2005 14:34:15 -0400, "Mike Brearley"
<nospam@spam.com> wrote:

>NTFS is designed to be able to detect disk problems and protect your data
>for you. If you suspect a problem, then run it, otherwise it's not
>necessary.

Everyone's assuming that the OP has NTFS. It's entirely possible
that his disk came set up as FAT32 (mine did), and he never
converted it (I haven't).

I know I should convert, but I dread all the permission issues that
will surface since I installed programs as administrator and do all
my work as limited user.

--
Stan Brown, Oak Road Systems, Tompkins County, New York, USA
http://OakRoadSystems.com/
"My theory was a perfectly good one. The facts were misleading."
-- /The Lady Vanishes/ (1938)

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (More info?)

>>Just remember running defrag too often can
> reduce the life expectancy of your drive.
>

Oh? I didn't know that.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (More info?)

History Fan wrote:

>>> Just remember running defrag too often can
>> reduce the life expectancy of your drive.
>>
>
> Oh? I didn't know that.


Good. It's not true.

--
Ken Blake
Please Reply to the Newsgroup

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (More info?)

Ken Blake wrote:
>
> >>> Just remember running defrag too often can
> >> reduce the life expectancy of your drive.
> >
> > Oh? I didn't know that.
>
> Good. It's not true.

Agreed.



--
http://www.bootdisk.com/

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (More info?)

"Ken Blake" <kblake@this.is.an.invalid.domain> wrote in message
news:ussY57DqFHA.2240@tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl...
> History Fan wrote:
>
>>>> Just remember running defrag too often can
>>> reduce the life expectancy of your drive.
>>>
>>
>> Oh? I didn't know that.
>
>
> Good. It's not true.
>

So you're saying that you can read/write to your hard drive an infinite
amount of times? You're saying that the parts in the drive won't wear down
over time and use? You're saying that defrag doesn't put extra strain on
your drive?

You may be right, and I may be mistaken. It just seems logical to me that
extra use of a hardware device would put more wear and tear on it.

--
Mike

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (More info?)

: >>>> Just remember running defrag too often can
: >>> reduce the life expectancy of your drive.
: >>>
: >> Oh? I didn't know that.
: >
: > Good. It's not true.
: >
:
: It just seems logical to me that extra use of a
: hardware device would put more wear and tear
: on it.

All depends on how you look at it. You may have a lot of
wear and tear when you defrag, but then how much jumping
around will there be to read & write files later on if you
don't?

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (More info?)

Mike Brearley wrote:

> "Ken Blake" <kblake@this.is.an.invalid.domain> wrote in message
> news:ussY57DqFHA.2240@tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl...
>> History Fan wrote:
>>
>>>>> Just remember running defrag too often can
>>>> reduce the life expectancy of your drive.
>>>>
>>>
>>> Oh? I didn't know that.
>>
>>
>> Good. It's not true.
>>
>
> So you're saying that you can read/write to your hard drive an
> infinite amount of times?


No, of course not.


> You're saying that the parts in the drive
> won't wear down over time and use?


I'm not saying that either.


> You're saying that defrag doesn't
> put extra strain on your drive?


Yes, that's what I'm saying.First, defragging usually results in *less*
strain on the drive, because fragmented drives require extra accesses
whenever they are used.

But even more important, modern drives last a long time, regardless of how
much access they get (with any kind of reasonable use). Whether you never
defrag or defrag daily, in the great majority of caes the drive will last
longer than you will want to keep it. It just doesn't matter.

--
Ken Blake
Please Reply to the Newsgroup


> You may be right, and I may be mistaken. It just seems logical to me
> that extra use of a hardware device would put more wear and tear on
> it.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (More info?)

As to defrag, it lowers "Wear-&-Tear". If you keep the drive say
95% defragmented then on a day to day basis the heads have to
do less work to read & write your data. Drives have a rating called
MTBF (Mean Time Between Failure) which is an average number
of hours of use verses a single unit failure. It's not like a drive can
do 10 Trillion accesses and then it's all used up and fails.

"Mike Brearley" <nospam@spam.com> wrote in message
news:O598t8KqFHA.1336@TK2MSFTNGP11.phx.gbl...
> "Ken Blake" <kblake@this.is.an.invalid.domain> wrote in message
> news:ussY57DqFHA.2240@tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl...
>> History Fan wrote:
>>
>>>>> Just remember running defrag too often can
>>>> reduce the life expectancy of your drive.
>>>>
>>>
>>> Oh? I didn't know that.
>>
>>
>> Good. It's not true.
>>
>
> So you're saying that you can read/write to your hard drive an infinite
> amount of times? You're saying that the parts in the drive won't wear
> down over time and use? You're saying that defrag doesn't put extra
> strain on your drive?
>
> You may be right, and I may be mistaken. It just seems logical to me that
> extra use of a hardware device would put more wear and tear on it.
>
> --
> Mike
>

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (More info?)

"Mike Mueller" <MyName@ecinet.net.net> wrote in message
news:eqeM$CLqFHA.544@TK2MSFTNGP11.phx.gbl...
>: >>>> Just remember running defrag too often can
> : >>> reduce the life expectancy of your drive.
> : >>>
> : >> Oh? I didn't know that.
> : >
> : > Good. It's not true.
> : >
> :
> : It just seems logical to me that extra use of a
> : hardware device would put more wear and tear
> : on it.
>
> All depends on how you look at it. You may have a lot of
> wear and tear when you defrag, but then how much jumping
> around will there be to read & write files later on if you
> don't?
>
>

Yep... I was wrong. I never really thought of it that way, but it
makes complete sense.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (More info?)

I've decided on this schedule:

* The 1st Saturday of every month, run a Disk Defrag.
* Every other Saturday, run a Check Disk
* Every Saturday, check for updates and run Avast AV, MS AntiSpyware,
Spybot S&D, Ad-Aware SE, CWShredder, and SpywareBlaster.

"History Fan" <Unknownplaces@unknown11.com> wrote in message
news:%23QFKnbAqFHA.2592@TK2MSFTNGP12.phx.gbl...
> Hello. I have a PC running XP Home SP2.
>
> According to the Microsoft URL below, it is advisable to run Check Disk
> weekly if you use your PC daily, and Disk Defrag monthly, although more
> often in certain circumstances. Does that sound like a good time
> schedule? I realize there is no "official" answer to these questions, just
> wondering if the schedule seems reasonable.
> http://www.microsoft.com/atwork/getstarted/speed.mspx#EKAA
>

 

[Rock]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (More info?)

History Fan wrote:

> I've decided on this schedule:
>
> * The 1st Saturday of every month, run a Disk Defrag.
> * Every other Saturday, run a Check Disk
> * Every Saturday, check for updates and run Avast AV, MS AntiSpyware,
> Spybot S&D, Ad-Aware SE, CWShredder, and SpywareBlaster.
>
> "History Fan" <Unknownplaces@unknown11.com> wrote in message
> news:%23QFKnbAqFHA.2592@TK2MSFTNGP12.phx.gbl...
>
>> Hello. I have a PC running XP Home SP2.
>>
>> According to the Microsoft URL below, it is advisable to run Check Disk
>>weekly if you use your PC daily, and Disk Defrag monthly, although more
>>often in certain circumstances. Does that sound like a good time
>>schedule? I realize there is no "official" answer to these questions, just
>>wondering if the schedule seems reasonable.
>>http://www.microsoft.com/atwork/getstarted/speed.mspx#EKAA
>>
>
>
>

IMO you don't need to do Check Disk so often.

--
Rock
MS MVP Windows - Shell/User

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (More info?)

History Fan wrote:

> I've decided on this schedule:
>
> * The 1st Saturday of every month, run a Disk Defrag.
> * Every other Saturday, run a Check Disk
> * Every Saturday, check for updates and run Avast AV, MS
> AntiSpyware, Spybot S&D, Ad-Aware SE, CWShredder, and SpywareBlaster.


Although I wouldn't run chdsk that often and I check for updates more often,
I don't have any real problem with what you suggest.

One comment though: you can't *run* SpywareBlaster every Saturday, or at
all. All you need to do is enable protection for new items after it gets an
update.

--
Ken Blake
Please Reply to the Newsgroup

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (More info?)

On Tue, 23 Aug 2005 16:23:59 -0400, Stan Brown
>On Tue, 23 Aug 2005 14:34:15 -0400, "Mike Brearley"

>>NTFS is designed to be able to detect disk problems and protect your data
>>for you. If you suspect a problem, then run it, otherwise it's not
>>necessary.

Nope - NTFS will paper over problems it finds (thus hiding from you
something you need to know - that your HD may be dying) but it can do
nothing to save data that's corrupted below its level of abstraction.

The goal is to duck support calls, not save data.

>Everyone's assuming that the OP has NTFS. It's entirely possible
>that his disk came set up as FAT32 (mine did), and he never
>converted it (I haven't).

>I know I should convert

Why? The features you get may not be as relevent to you as the
downside; added complexity that lacks decent maintenance tools.

http://cquirke.mvps.org/ntfs.htm refers.



>-------------------- ----- ---- --- -- - - - -
Hmmm... what was the *other* idea?
>-------------------- ----- ---- --- -- - - - -

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (More info?)

On Tue, 23 Aug 2005 17:01:25 -0700, "Ken Blake"
>History Fan wrote:

>>>> Just remember running defrag too often can
>>> reduce the life expectancy of your drive.

>> Oh? I didn't know that.

>Good. It's not true.

What is true, is that because defrag potentially reads the contents of
every file into memory, and then writes it back to the HD, it should
never be done on unstable systems or where there is a suspicion of
hardware defects (RAM, HD etc.).

It's a way of making a healthy system faster.

It has no role in troubleshooting stability issues, other than as a
way of digging yourself into deeper trouble.



>-------------------- ----- ---- --- -- - - - -
Reality is that which, when you stop believing
in it, does not go away (PKD)
>-------------------- ----- ---- --- -- - - - -

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (More info?)

On Wed, 24 Aug 2005 09:24:36 -0400, "Mike Brearley" <nospam@spam.com>

>So you're saying that you can read/write to your hard drive an infinite
>amount of times? You're saying that the parts in the drive won't wear down
>over time and use? You're saying that defrag doesn't put extra strain on
>your drive?

The physical HD has no awareness of defrag as a process different from
anything else that swings the heads and writes through them.

The concept of defrag is "duty now for the future", i.e. let's wave
the heads around a lot for a certain amount of time, so that from then
on, there will be less waving of the heads.

Anything that reduces waving of heads will not only make the system
faster, but extend the life of the HD too, as you surmized.

So it really comes down to whether you defrag "too often" or not, i.e.
whether defragging adds more waving of heads than the benefits remove
from your day-to-day use of the system.



>------------ ----- ---- --- -- - - - -
The most accurate diagnostic instrument
in medicine is the Retrospectoscope
>------------ ----- ---- --- -- - - - -

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (More info?)

History Fan Wrote:
> Hello. I have a PC running XP Home SP2.
>
> According to the Microsoft URL below, it is advisable to run Check
> Disk
> weekly if you use your PC daily, and Disk Defrag monthly, although
> more
> often in certain circumstances. Does that sound like a good time
> schedule?
> I realize there is no "official" answer to these questions, just
> wondering
> if the schedule seems reasonable.
> http://www.microsoft.com/atwork/getstarted/speed.mspx#EKAA

There's an article on fragmentation and defragmenting at
http://www.windowsitpro.com/Whitepapers


--
xy2z

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (More info?)

On Fri, 26 Aug 2005 03:32:16 +0000, xy2z <xy2z.1ucwdt@pcbanter.net>
wrote:

>There's an article on fragmentation and defragmenting at
>http://www.windowsitpro.com/Whitepapers

... if you're willing to go through a rather intrusive series of
questions for registration _and_ reveal your email address.

--
Stan Brown, Oak Road Systems, Tompkins County, New York, USA
http://OakRoadSystems.com/
"What in heaven's name brought you to Casablanca?"
"My health. I came to Casablanca for the waters."
"The waters? What waters? We're in the desert."

 

[dannysdailys]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (More info?)

I would say that was accurate, except for the defrag. It depends what
you put on your system and how it is partitioned.

Do you encode music of video on the C drive? (not recommended) If
so, I'd want to defrag weekly. Large files such as those, will
really frag a drive quite quickly.

Cleaning junk out of the system, I find it better if it's cleaned as
it's made.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (More info?)

On Fri, 26 Aug 2005 19:35:47 GMT,
dannysdailys@aol-dot-com.no-spam.invalid (dannysdailys) wrote:

>I would say that was accurate, except for the defrag. It depends what
>you put on your system and how it is partitioned.

WHAT is accurate except for the defrag? Give us some context,
please; we're not mind readers, and articles don't arrive at every
server in the same order they arrive at yours.

--
Stan Brown, Oak Road Systems, Tompkins County, New York, USA
http://OakRoadSystems.com/
"What in heaven's name brought you to Casablanca?"
"My health. I came to Casablanca for the waters."
"The waters? What waters? We're in the desert."