Curse

TheRaven · Jun 25, 2008, 11:39 PM // 23:39

Ok, my hard drive sounded like it was working overtime this morning so I decided to run the defrag program before heading off to work. It had loads of stuff to defrag and stayed busy most of the day.

When I returned home, the process had finished and I have a nice clean defragmented drive....with one MAJOR exception. One program that contains a whopping 126 fragments. Which program? Yep, you guessed it, gw.dat.

So, what's my best option?
-Uninstall/Reinstall (run -image)?
-find a better defragger?
-Hard drive too cluttered to defrag (40gb total 18gb free)
-New computer?

fusa · Jun 25, 2008, 11:45 PM // 23:45

Use contig http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/s.../bb897428.aspx Windows built in defragmenter and some others can't handle file sizes that big.

Wrath Of Dragons · Jun 26, 2008, 12:38 AM // 00:38

actually, try this:
copy paste the .dat to a different folder (like your desktop.) delete the original (dont just move the original)

cut/paste the one on your desktop back into the guildwars folder.

Windows makes the new file as a non-fragmented file

Snograt · Jun 26, 2008, 12:45 AM // 00:45

Make sure you have PLENTY of free space on the drive first. If not, delete some of that crap you've accumulated.

Lord Sojar · Jun 26, 2008, 02:00 AM // 02:00

You should always have 20% freespace on your HDDs, otherwise, their performance goes out the window. With less than 10% free space, kiss speed goodbye.

And yes, contig works nicely. Wrath is correct as well, at least on Vista because of its file keeping systems. XP would copy the fragmented sections.

Wrath Of Dragons · Jun 26, 2008, 02:15 AM // 02:15

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rahja the Thief

You should always have 20% freespace on your HDDs, otherwise, their performance goes out the window. With less than 10% free space, kiss speed goodbye.

And yes, contig works nicely. Wrath is correct as well, at least on Vista because of its file keeping systems. XP would copy the fragmented sections.

Actually, the if you copy it (not just move the file, cuse i think that just moves the pointer to the file) it seems to defrag it. I did this to a few .avi movies i had that wouldnt defrag. moving them killed the fragments. This is xp

Lord Sojar · Jun 26, 2008, 03:48 AM // 03:48

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wrath Of Dragons

Actually, the if you copy it (not just move the file, cuse i think that just moves the pointer to the file) it seems to defrag it. I did this to a few .avi movies i had that wouldnt defrag. moving them killed the fragments. This is xp

Odd, I was made aware that the NTFS file system used direct copy, and created a mirror image. Perhaps it works with some files and not others.

Vista will actively repair files, which is why it is far more stable than any previous Windows release. It just also happens to be a resource pig.

Tarun · Jun 26, 2008, 04:22 AM // 04:22

Run CCleaner and Windows Disk Cleanup, also clean the System Restore points, then defrag.

Lord Mythirion · Jun 26, 2008, 06:24 AM // 06:24

run ccleaner, then use JK Defrag. Just google it, since you've probably never heard of it before. It works like a charm.

zamial · Jun 26, 2008, 11:51 AM // 11:51

Well in my experiences with the .dat file it takes multiple passes to defrag it,

Also worthy of note: lets just say you have a 30 gb hd, this hd has your os, programs, pics, and some music that totals up to 25-26gb. Even tho the gw.dat is 3 Gbish and you have 4 GB available, that is still not enough space to defrag it. As a rule you need about 3x the file size available to defrag the file.

KZaske · Jun 26, 2008, 02:49 PM // 14:49

One of the keys to getting defrager to work correctly is to keep as much of your hard drive free as you can. Normally, I will not allow less than 25% or less free space on the drive. I have found that 20GB on a 300GB drive is just not enough.
As for JK Defrag, it is a great utility and have several friends that sware by it. If you have less than 25% free, use it. Otherwise using the windows built in defragger will work fine.

Edit: no more posting without my reading glasses.