Option For Partial File Defragmentation

[aviwil]

I would like an option ( possibly in Options-Quick Defrag-Custom Rules ) to be able to actually leave some defragmentation for files .

e.g. files between 5 and 10 GB will be defragmented down to 5 fragments etc .

My reasoning being , that I think most users are probably only accessing , say 20% , of a data disk . If it's totally defragmented , so the disk heads will also only be accessing that same 20% most of the time . However , if it's still minimally defragmented , so even if only accessing 20% , chances are that the disk heads will probably be moving back and forth over most of the disk area . In my opinion , this is much more healthy for the disk life etc .

Thanks .

[redhawk]

I don't think the Windows API allows for partial defragging, if there is insufficient contiguous freespace it won't defrag.

 

Richard S.

[mr don]

I don't think the Windows API allows for partial defragging...

 

I don't think he is referring to Windows API at all.

I think he is meaning that to do a whole disk defrag may shorten a drive more so than just defragging a drive (say to 95%) & stopping.

 

Or perhaps simply having the option to leave X% fragments so that the drive lasts longer.

 

He just wants it to do an incomplete defrag, since hey, no drive is ever 100% defragged & consolidated at one time, right? I may be wrong, but I think this is what he is thinking.

[aviwil]

Thanks redhawk and mr don . I tried to be clear , but doesn't look as though I was too succesfull on that .

I meant - to do a regular defrag - except , instead of each file ending up as one segment , they could end up as multiple segments , depending on what you wanted . e.g. a 30 GB movie could have been 100 segments before defrag , but 5 segments after ( not one ) .

Does that come out any clearer ?

[Rob Defraggle]

I agree with the OP the there are diminishing returns on coalescing large fragments into one extent.

 

See Less Strict Fragment Defintion, Display & Reporting

 

I don't think it makes sense though to say that 5 GB files, can have 10 fragments, and say 500 MB files 5, nor is there much value in exctly specifying such.

 

What matters is fragments are in good size chunks so that the additional seek to access the fragment costs small amount of time compared to the time to read each chunk of data. So having some "chunk" size defined, where the fragment shall be left alone, ought to suffice.

 

It appears the Windows 7 (likely Vista defrag) has this notion already from it's reporting, so I'm using that for full defrag and using Defraggler for the Quick Defrag and Free space defrag only.