Need a Techie answer for dummies - Guild Wars Guru archive powered by Guild Wars Legacy

TheRaven

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Sep 2006

Virginia

Spirit of Elisha

W/

25 Jun 2008 at 23:39 - 1

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

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Mar 2007

25 Jun 2008 at 23:45 - 2

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

Burninate Stuff

Join Date: Aug 2005

New Mexico

E/Mo

26 Jun 2008 at 00:38 - 3

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

rattus rattus

Join Date: Jan 2006

London, UK GMT??0 ??1hr DST

[GURU]GW [wiki]GW2

R/

26 Jun 2008 at 00:45 - 4

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

Lord Sojar

The Fallen One

Join Date: Dec 2005

Oblivion

Irrelevant

Mo/Me

26 Jun 2008 at 02:00 - 5

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

Burninate Stuff

Join Date: Aug 2005

New Mexico

E/Mo

26 Jun 2008 at 02:15 - 6

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

The Fallen One

Join Date: Dec 2005

Oblivion

Irrelevant

Mo/Me

26 Jun 2008 at 03:48 - 7

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

Technician's Corner Moderator

Join Date: Jan 2006

The TARDIS

http://www.lunarsoft.net/ http://forums.lunarsoft.net/

26 Jun 2008 at 04:22 - 8

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

Lord Mythirion

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Dec 2006

R/

26 Jun 2008 at 06:24 - 9

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

zamial

Site Contributor

Join Date: Apr 2006

Usa

TKC

N/

26 Jun 2008 at 11:51 - 10

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

Jungle Guide

Join Date: Jun 2006

Boise Idaho

Druids Of Old (DOO)

R/Mo

26 Jun 2008 at 14:49 - 11

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.