Should I really defragment? (...Solved)

[Lad]

As you read the title mates, should I defragment?

Now, I've used O&O Defrag, Diskeeper, and the default Windows one before.

But, one thing I found is my preformance on my WD Black, has been around 160mb/s, and I haven't defrag'd since I got it (around 4/5 months ago)

Obviously, when I used to defrag on my other hard drives, I'd get faster speeds but they would reduce after a day or two, and the benefit was just gone.

 

So the main question is...

Do you recommend defragmenting? If so, how often and with with program.

 

I Run Windows 8.1, I have a 120GB SSD (boot), 1TB Western Digital Black for Games/Software, 1TB extra drive just for recording game footage with Shadowplay.

[Nexxus]

windows defrags itself now...if this was xp or (maybe I dunno never used it) vista id say yes do it...now adays? nope. I havent done it in...I dunno 2 years?

edit and I just looked all my drives are 0% fragmented.

[Minzo]

SSDs don't need to be defragged, but defragging can benefit IDE and SATA drives.

You also shorten the lifespan on SSDs when defragging them so you know, don't.

[Lad]

You also shorten the lifespan on SSDs when defragging them so you know, don't.

Oh, I know that ...maybe should have mentioned it

 

windows defrags itself now...if this was xp or (maybe I dunno never used it) vista id say yes do it...now adays? nope. I havent done it in...I dunno 2 years?

edit and I just looked all my drives are 0% fragmented.

Ah, well maybe it's not worth it after all? Just was wondering since the effects of "defragmenting" never last long.

[Nexxus]

Oh, I know that ...maybe should have mentioned it

 

Ah, well maybe it's not worth it after all? Just was wondering since the effects of "defragmenting" never last long.

probably because they were barely fragmented at all. im amazed you see any fragmentation honestly..the handful of times ive looke its always said 0%

check the schedule optimisation section. Mine runs weekly

[deadaccount69]

Never defrag an SSD. It just causes damage with zero performance difference. On hard drives, It can help, but with modern file systems it makes little difference. In fact, I would highly recommend changing the windows default defrag schedule to once a month AT MOST. I personally only run it manually every 6 months and have no performance problems.

 

EDIT: The reason to not run it weekly is just because defragging wears down the hdd quite a bit.

[Lad]

probably because they were barely fragmented at all. im amazed you see any fragmentation honestly..the handful of times ive looke its always said 0%

Mainly, I believe most of the fragmentation I ever have might be do to recording footage with Shadowplay? Eh, well seems defragmenting isn't worth the time.

[Lad]

Never defrag an SSD. It just causes damage with zero performance difference. On hard drives, It can help, but with modern file systems it makes little difference. In fact, I would highly recommend changing the windows default defrag schedule to once a month AT MOST. I personally only run it manually every 6 months and have no performance problems.

I knew about the SSD, but thanks about the information. I might leave Windows to defrag every few months or something, thanks mate.

[deadaccount69]

I heard that wasn't true, but there's no gain/point to it.

It most certainly is true. Remember, SSD's have a limited amount of write cycles and defraging makes a lot of writes to shuffle around the data.

[deadaccount69]

But, does it kill it?  Or, does it just slow it down?

It could kill it if you run it on an SSD that is almost out of write cycles therefore "pushing it over the edge". That is pretty unlikely though.(EDIT: unless being run on a very old SSD as you said) However, it will use up write cycles and shorten the lifespan of the SSD(especially if it is being run weekly). As for performance, I don't think it makes a difference.

[TopNotchPCLol]

As you read the title mates, should I defragment?

Now, I've used O&O Defrag, Diskeeper, and the default Windows one before.

But, one thing I found is my preformance on my WD Black, has been around 160mb/s, and I haven't defrag'd since I got it (around 4/5 months ago)

Obviously, when I used to defrag on my other hard drives, I'd get faster speeds but they would reduce after a day or two, and the benefit was just gone.

 

So the main question is...

Do you recommend defragmenting? If so, how often and with with program.

 

I Run Windows 8.1, I have a 120GB SSD (boot), 1TB Western Digital Black for Games/Software, 1TB extra drive just for recording game footage with Shadowplay.

If you're using Windows 7 and up, the operating system automatically defrags on the fly in the background, so long as you don't have the disk defragmenter replaced/disabled(as defraggler does by default).

If you think that your Hard Drive is not working, you can use HD Sentinel, or HDTune Pros trial(I recommend the latter) and you can find out if there is problems with your drive. Also just don't forget to run Chkdsk every now and again.

 

Also you don't need to defrag an SSD. Due to the way an SSD works, it spreads the data all over the drive as there is no read/write head that needs to physically move to different parts of the drive, you won't see any speed benefits from defragging an SSD. Also if you defrag an SSD it will reduce the lifespan of the drive. 

[deadaccount69]

Also just don't forget to run Chkdsk every now and again.

I gotta contradict you there. With hard drives the rule is always "Don't fix what isn't broken" If a SMART monitoring tool such as Crystal Disk finds damaged sectors, THEN run chkdsk. If you run it when nothing is wrong, you are just wasting time and wearing the drive. (At least in my experience) I have seen chkdsk kill a drive that was on the edge so don't run it for nothing. Here is an analogy(you can decide how valid it is)

 

 

You have a classic old reliable car(old toyota for example) and you want to make absolutely sure it doesn't "surprise" you with something breaking or falling off. So every month, you take off every bolt and re-tighten it to make absolutely sure that every bolt is always tight.

 

At a glance this seems smart because you can be sure that no bolts will fall out randomly. However, all you are really doing is wearing down the threads and wasting your own time. It is completely unnecessary to constantly tighten those bolts unless you have good reason to believe something is loose. However, if you do think something is loose, you should absolutely make sure by tightening it. but otherwise, you are just fixing what isn't broken.

 

 

 

I would say hard drives should be treated in the same way. Don't try and fix it if it isn't broken. But also don't neglect it if there is something needing to be fixed.

[TopNotchPCLol]

I gotta contradict you there. With hard drives the rule is always "Don't fix what isn't broken" If a SMART monitoring tool such as Crystal Disk finds damaged sectors, THEN run chkdsk. If you run it when nothing is wrong, you are just wasting time and wearing the drive. (At least in my experience) I have seen chkdsk kill a drive that was on the edge so don't run it for nothing. Here is an analogy(you can decide how valid it is)

 

 

You have a classic old reliable car(old toyota for example) and you want to make absolutely sure it doesn't "surprise" you with something breaking or falling off. So every month, you take off every bolt and re-tighten it to make absolutely sure that every bolt is always tight.

 

At a glance this seems smart because you can be sure that no bolts will fall out randomly. However, all you are really doing is wearing down the threads and wasting your own time. It is completely unnecessary to constantly tighten those bolts unless you have good reason to believe something is loose. However, if you do think something is loose, you should absolutely make sure by tightening it. but otherwise, you are just fixing what isn't broken.

 

 

 

I would say hard drives should be treated in the same way. Don't try and fix it if it isn't broken. But also don't neglect it if there is something needing to be fixed.

I agree with you, but if he happens to have data on the drive that he doesn't want corrupted then it's worthwhile. You are correct though. My apologies.