Move specified files to front of partition...

[GypsyPrince]

Many years ago (Windows 98 and earlier), Norton Speed Disk by Symantec was the "BOMB" at disk defragmentation because it was so customizable.  But these days, unfortunately, Norton's Utilities requires so much overhead and uses up far too many system resources, it actually slows down your system to the point of negating all the tweaks it used to speed up your system.  Anyway, among Speed Disk's many options was the ability to specify which file types get placed at the beginning of the disk partition, as well as what file types get placed at the end of the partition.

 

Defraggler currently allows you to place files at the end of the partition which are above a specified file size.  With this option of course, you can specify that only certain file types get placed at the end, but they still must be of that specified file size or greater.

 

In addition to the current option of placing selected file types of a specified size at the end of the partition, how about an option to place other specified file types at the end of the partition - regardless of their size?  Example: I want all of my *.zip, *.log, *.tmp, *.bak, *.cab, etc. files placed at or near the end of the partition regardless of their file size.

 

However, I also want the ability to move all my *.exe, *.com, *.dll, *.vxd, and *.dat files (or any other file types I desire) to be placed at the front of the disk partition, and regardless of their file size.  FIle types specified for this particular option would of course, override the "Move large files to end of drive..." option.  The reason for this necessity is because I might want all files of a certain size or greater (say... 25mb or larger) moved to the end of the partition unless those files are executables, libraries, database files, etc.  I can currently exclude these filetypes by choosing the "Move only selected files, folders, and file types" option, but this doesn't work well either because my *.exe, *.dll, *.dat, etc. files still do not necessarily get moved to the front of the partition where I want them.  If there is a huge 100MB file of some file type that I have never seen before lurking somewhere on my hard drive, then I won't know to specify its file type in the list to move to the end.  And we all know that Microsoft and their bloat-ware is always constantly new huge files of some unknown file type on our systems without our knowledge.

 

So...

 

1.) Keep the ability to move files of a specified size or larger to the end of the partition, except for files of that size which are specified in the list to be moved to the front of the partition (see #3).  Also keep the option to specify that only specified files, folders, or file types of that specified size or greater are moved to the end of the partition.

 

2.) Add the option to move additional files to the end of the partition - regardless of their file size.  Any files specified in this option list will be moved to the end of the partition even if their file size is less than the size of the "large" file types specified to be moved to the end.

 

3.) Add the option to move specified files, folders, or file types to the FRONT of the partition - regardless of their file size.  Any files specified in this option list will be moved to the front of the partition even if their file size is equal to or greater than the size of files specified to be moved to the end.

 

This third option is important, not only to increase the access speed to executables and libraries, but also imagine a business whose computer system is used primarily for data wharehousing, using many different data files.  The user will want the ability to move those data files to the front of the partition right behind the system files and executables for faster access, especially if their application performs data maintenance whereby old data is constantly purged from those data files and those data files are then compacted.  The compacted data files will most certainly become defragmented and will need to be moved back to the front of the partition when defragmenting the drive.

 

4.) Add the abilitity to make the preceding file, folder, and file type customizations distinct for each individual hard drive or partition.  Example: on my C: drive I want my executables, libraries, database files, etc moved to the front of the partition.  But since I keep all my media and storage on my D: drive I would like to be able to move all my *.mp3, *.mp4, *.avi, etc files to the front of the partition for quicker access but move my *.zip, *.cab, and other archive formats to the end of the partition.  If your programmers are not skilled enough to accomplish all of this, one way to achieve it is to write all the file, file type, and folder customizations to a separate *.ini file from the rest of Defraggler's program settings.  Name the file "File Customizations.ini".  Then I can make copies of that *.ini file, having one for my C: drive, one for my D: drive, one for my E: drive, etc. I will make customizations for my C: drive, then I'll rename that INI file  "File Customizations.ini_C".  I'll make custimizations in another copy and rename that file "File Customizations.ini_D". I'll do the same for drive E:, F:, and so on.  When I want to defragment a specific drive, say drive E:, I'll temoprarily rename "File Customizations.ini_E" --> "File Customizations.ini" while Defraggler is running.  This is of course, the hard way of accomplishing such customization like Speed Disk had.  But I'm sure your software developers can meet the challenge of allowing built-in file customization distinct to each drive, no matter how many hard drives or partitions the end user has on their system.

 

If you add these options it will make hard drives scream with speed and Defraggler will be a truly professional/commercial application that will compete with Norton's Speed Disk, but without the gawd-awful drain on system resources.