andyc@hplsla.HP.COM (Andy Cassino) (09/26/89)
There's been a lot of talk about defragging programs for hard disks.
Here's a method for defragging that doesn't require any special software. I
have used this to clean-up a disk partition that got fairly well messed up.
To use this method you need a spare partition that's large enough to hold all
the files in the partition to be defragged. Zero that spare partition
and *filecopy* the partition to be defragged to the spare partition. This
means open the partition to be defragged, lassoo all folders and files,
and drag them to the spare partition. This takes awhile!
When the filecopy is done, do a "show information" on both partitions.
MAKE SURE THE FILE & FOLDER COUNT is the same, as well as the byte count!
I've had cases where the files in some folders DON'T GET COPIED. (This
being when I have multiply-referenced clusters on the partition to be
defragged). Do not proceed until you are sure the filecopy was complete!
The filecopy operation results in a defragged copy of the original partition.
The next step is to zero the original partition and copy it's contents
back in from the spare partition. For this I use Neodesk's sector copy
mode - it is fast, and since the first copy operation already defragged
everything, there's no reason not to do this. (This requires partition
of the same size. Otherwise just do a filecopy again. It just takes longer.)
Of course, one could just back up the partition to be defragged to floppy,
zero it, and restore it. That is really slow!
This has worked well for me, the price being that I need to keep one
partition free for this purpose. I assume no responsibility for anyone else
trying this, however!
(BTW, this method of defragging was suggested by my dealer, who indicated he
thought it was more reliable than the various defrag programs available).
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed herein are those solely
of the author, who has no pecuniary interest in the companies mentioned.
Copyright (c) 1989 by Andrew Cassino. All rights reserved.
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% Andy Cassino %
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% Hewlett-Packard Lake Stevens Instrument Division %
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%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%andyc@hplsla.HP.COM (Andy Cassino) (09/28/89)
With regard to my posting about defragging, here's a caution! IF you are
defragging the boot partition, BE SURE to re-write the boot sector of that
partition after defragging the partition. (With ICD host adaptors, use the
BOOT & CONFIGURE options of HDUTILS.PRG). The process I outlined zeroes
the boot sector, so you'll lose your autoboot from hard drive. (Fortunately,
recovery is easy, just boot from floppy as you would after formatting the
hard drive, and then reconfigure the hard drive for autoboot).
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed herein are those solely
of the author, who has no pecuniary interest in the companies mentioned.
Copyright (c) 1989 by Andrew Cassino. All rights reserved.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
% Andy Cassino %
% uucp: hplabs!hplsla!andyc domain: andyc%hplsla@hplabs.hp.com %
% Hewlett-Packard Lake Stevens Instrument Division %
% 8600 Soper Hill Road Everett, WA 98205-1298 %
% (206) 335-2211 %
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%