🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <iscjcw-041192092713@ajax.ucop.edu> (comp.sys.mac.apps), iscjcw@uccvma.ucop.edu (Jerry Wilcox) writes:
> In article <scott.720888755@phylo>, scott@phylo.life.uiuc.edu (Snooky
> Fudge) wrote:
> > 
> > After dutifully defragmenting disks once a month for a number of 
> > years on Hard Drives with interleaves of 1:3 and 1:1, and never
> > noticing any improvement in access speed, no matter how fragmented
> > the drive's files were, I'm left wondering:
> > 
> > Do file defragmentation utilities actually increase the rate of
> > file access by the OS and application programs?
> 
> I don't think there's a really simple answer to this question because a lot
> depends upon the applications you use, how the disk is accessed, and so
> forth.
> 
> My own experience, having done a limited amount of measurement before and
> after shows me that I don't really see a slowdown until the disk is about
> 5% or more fragmented. Measuring launch times indicates to me that LARGE
> applications launch more quickly if they are defragged. If the application
> is small and only occupies a few blocks, I can't measure any difference.
> The same seems to be true for LARGE datafiles, particularly those which are
> loaded entirely into memory by the application.
> 
> I would be interested in hearing anyone else's experiences. I used to
> defrag once a week, now I run the checker every two weeks or so and defrag
> when the percentage of fragmented files gets above 5 or so. With my system,
> that means I defrag about once every 4 or 6 weeks on average.
...
Yes, the file access speed will always be increased, just don't blink
when opening them.  I have to agree with the 5% figure.  Every time
I would notice a slowdown the fragmentation was in the 5-8% range.
I defragment my drive for the following reasons not just to increase
the access time:

	1.	Reduce drive wear.
	2.	Reduce the chance of multiple file loss.  By this I mean if
		the drive is exposed to a vibration severe enough to cause
		the head to contact the media then most likely the data in
		those sectors may be gone.  It's always easier to deal with
		one damaged file rather that 2-4.
	3.	File recovery is much easier when your files are contiguous.
	4.	This is a minor one for one hard drive but if you have a site
		with hundreds of hard drives then think about the power consumption
		with all those drives using maybe 10 times as much power to
		access one file.  Energy conservation/Cost savings.

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