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From: winata@cat25.cs.wisc.edu (Charles Winata)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc
Subject: Re: Disk deframgmentation software - recommendations wanted
Message-ID: <1991Apr3.204220.20812@daffy.cs.wisc.edu>
Date: 3 Apr 91 20:42:20 GMT
References: <10286@pitt.UUCP> <1050@pallas.athenanet.com>
Sender: news@daffy.cs.wisc.edu (The News)
Organization: U of Wisconsin CS Dept
Lines: 49

In article <1050@pallas.athenanet.com> kabra437@pallas.athenanet.com (Ken Abrams) writes:
>In article <10286@pitt.UUCP> jonathan@cs.pitt.edu (Jonathan Eunice) writes:
>>I need to defragment by disk -- ie, put all the little unused blocks
>
>The answer depends partly on how big your disk partitions are and
>what version of DOS you are using.  In the past I used a shareware
>program called DOG (for Disk OrGanizer).  It worked well for partitions
><32M under DOS 3.x or less.  I haven't used it for a long time; the
>recent versions may overcome these limits.
>I have used Norton's program and it works well but is VERY slow
>(it tends to move every block on the disk every time you run it).
>My personal preference is the COMPRESS program that comes with
>PC Tools.  I don't use all the "pieces" of the package but I think
>the parts I do use are well worth the approx. $80 price.
>
>Ken Abrams                     uunet!pallas!kabra437
>Illinois Bell                  kabra437@athenanet.com
>Springfield                    (voice) 217-753-7965

Well, you can't just accuse Norton's SD Ken. It tends to move up all the
blocks because it's alogarhytm is to pu .COM and .EXE in the 'Fast Tracks'
(term used by FastTrax) that is the Sectors closest to the FAT.

Compress, especially the old one, just makes the file defragmented but put it
whereever in the HD, that's why it's fast.

The best defragmenter for me is FastTrax. Here, you have the conrtrol of
where you can put your file. Usually tou would like to put your most used
program in the 'Fast tracks'. And you can put porgrams or directories that
you seldomly use in the end part of the disk/slow tracks :-). And this
very useful. You can put your data in a certain place of your disk so whenever
it expands or shrinks it would not affects your disk performance a lot.
With this method, the next time you defragment your HD, it will only defrag-
ment the datafiles. All the program files will not be touch, since you didn't
fool around with executables, overlays, etc, dont't you (at least most of us
don't)?
So, FastTrax will be better in the long run. I am just wondering why Norton,
and PCTools don't try to implement this into their defragmenter. You know
how it feels when SD and compress put your data directory in the beginning
sectors in your HD, that mean all your HD's block will be scrambled all over
when you do another session of defragmenting.

Hope this help!
-- 
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E      X X  E     D   D R   R A   A	Charles Winata
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