Disk Deframenter

[TheMajor]

O. But fragmentation actually refers to files.
I don't know how a file systen could prevent it. Maybe the OS will kinda move files around when you save a file to make sure it won't get fragmented. I can't think of any other way.

 

[horndude]

Fragmentation refers to how files are stored--->in one big chunk, or in little ones scattered all over(fragmentation), journaling file systems keep a log and allocate space before writing to the disk so the filesystem stays balanced and very little fragmentation happens.the only time it comes into play is when the filesystem is almost full, then it may have to fragment files to get them written,otherwise they get stored across contiguous inodes on the disk.NTFS solves some of this but not completely, and FAT32 will make a mess of a disk in a very short order, it just writes in no particular order leaving frags everywhere.No filesystem can elimintae frags completely, but the journaling ones do as about as good as it gets and removes the need to periodically defrag a drive.

 

[smileygladhands]

So why doesn't Windows use that system then?

 

[Him]

Because it's Windows. It is just their way of doing things. I'm sure there is a reason for it.

 

[horndude]

Because it's Windows. It is just their way of doing things. I'm sure there is a reason for it.

Well, what it basically comes down to is this:when designing a proprietary closed source OS it makes more sense to use your own filesystem rather than an open source one, so Apple,Microsoft,and many others have created their own, some are better than others.Now, on the otherhand, some OS's that are open source will have to be able to deal with the other filesystems and formats or they will have a tough time being useful as they are so rare as OS's go.So linux for example, can mount and read or write to about 60 different filesystems at present, some are really good,some arent.It also makes it easy to pick some good ones, and right now, the journaling ones are the filesystems of choice.The original system popular in linux was ext2, it works, its fairly good at dealing with fragments, but it could be better, the ones that came later are much much better.Windows isnt as modular or standardized like other OS's so changing filesystems is a major undertaking, matter of fact the defrag program in windows didnt even work properly till windows XP came out.Windows has made the decision to focus on other things, the consumers havent done anything about it, so here we are.The standard way of "fixing" windows is a format and reinstall, that is unheard of in other OS's believe it or not,so is defragging, neither linux nor OS X need defragging.

 

[Him]

In a substantial amount of words, you said what I couldnt. Nice work.

 

[smileygladhands]

It's amazing that in such a widely-used OS, there are so little options. And.. they keep taking things away.. like PW'ing individual files.