RAID disks and fragmentation...

[SINasTER]

Hi all, I have 3 quick questions...

I have been new to the world of RAID-0, my system is running with it since about a month or so. I have noticed that my RAID-0 drives get fragmented very easily over a short period of time... I was, and still using O&O defragmenter (I had no probs with it before and it does a superb job reorganising files)

So my question is, is there something special with a RAID disk setup that fragment the files or is it my way of reorganising them???

How do you keep things well organised and lightening speed accessable??

(with O&O I use a "COMPLETE/NAME" way to optimse the disks... there are also "COMPLETE/SPACE" and "COMPLETE/ACCESS")

P.S.: since I had a problem with the NVRAIDSERVICE and deinstalled it I cant access O&O anymore... Says the machine actively refuse the connection! Anyone has any idea why??

[snafumaster]

I use RAID 0 at work on my five terabyte ghost servers. It, as you must know, is awesome for performance. When doling out 4GB files, HDD performance is a must. On all of these machines, I use Diskeeper 10 Enterprise. They do have a bunch of versions though. I need the Enterprise version because I am running Windows server and because of my drive size. I would check out This page to see if you can get by with the home version. It is a comprehensive product, not just a simple defrag tool. There are many options for automated, or as they call it "set it and forget it", running. Theier site list the following as features...

• enhanced high speed defragmentation engine is the fastest on the market today—up to five times faster than the built-in defragmenter
  
• new! boot-time modesafely performs Microsoft®-recommended defragmentation of critical system files
  
• new! redesigned user interface for intuitive and easy scheduling and configuration
  
• new! enhancements to i/o smart™ which intelligently monitors drive access during defragmentation, allows transparent background defragmentation so you never experience a performance hit, even during system peak production times
  
• "set it and forget it" operation automatically defragments according to the schedule you set—or allow Diskeeper to intelligently schedule itself with Smart Scheduling™
  
• mulit-pass defragmentation maintains maximum PC performance with no long waits or slowdowns or excessive system resource usage
  
• screen saver modedefragments your drive while your system is idle
  

Now that you may be sold on this product, I also wanted to mention that the professional version has something that I think you may want that really aids in having your system less likely to need a defrag in the first place. That feature is called "frag shield" and they describe it as "frag shield™ dynamically reduces fragmentation of critical system files, maintaining system stability and reliability"

I truly think it's a great product and I have different versions of it running on all of my machines...

...did I mention TRIALWARE? Oh also, IBM is starting to put this as atrial on thier higher-end laptops too.

[SINasTER]

I use RAID 0 at work on my five terabyte ghost servers. It, as you must know, is awesome for performance. When doling out 4GB files, HDD performance is a must. On all of these machines, I use Diskeeper 10 Enterprise.

Tnx for the quick response on this snafumaster... But I am quit pleased with how O&O works and I don't want to get into buying another defragmenter at this time, just wanted help about the way I should defragment the drives... by NAME or by ACCESS

I tried an outdated version of DISKEEPER ENTERPRISE about a year ago (its not the version you have now Im quite sure but still) I wasnt impressed about the way it worked, rearranged the files and all.

Tnx anyway for your comment, I will keep your suggestions in mind and maybe retest the new version of DISKEEPER... B)

[Delprat]

You should use the STEALH and/or SPACE methods, not the COMPLETE/* ones. And you really should try Diskeeper.

The problem with O&O COMPLETE/* methods is that all files are rearranged, and even a little 100kb word document changed yesterday can make O&O think that moving that 3-years-old 4.7Gb DVD image is a great idea to optimize performance. (not sure that's good english, i hope you understand)

My experience shows me that Diskeeper will not do so stupid things (do not read : "diskeeper algo is clever")

But you don't have bucks to waste is that (and that is great 'coz i hate tom cruise) ; so you'll keep O&O.

If this inimitable noise is the only that makes you sleep, you should use the COMPLETE/* method you prefer.

If not, the question is how this little fragmentation affects performance : do you really see any difference between a STEALTH defrag and a COMPLETE one ?

++

[SINasTER]

The problem with O&O COMPLETE/* methods is that all files are rearranged, and even a little 100kb word document changed yesterday can make O&O think that moving that 3-years-old 4.7Gb DVD image is a great idea to optimize performance.

Well, thats a good way to look at it when O&O moves large files for no good reason! Maybe its time I give DISKEEPER another chance at it since its been so long!

If not, the question is how this little fragmentation affects performance : do you really see any difference between a STEALTH defrag and a COMPLETE one ?

I really dont know if there is a performance increase by running a COMPLETE defrag or just a STEALTH one... I only tried a COMPLETE one up to this date (it seemed a good choice a the time)

First, I'll see if there is a difference between a STEALTH defrag and a COMPLETE method, and then if there is no MAJOR improvements i'll give DISKEEPER a try

TNX for the info guys

[Jeremy]

PerfectDisk is also designed for huge HDs. I use a trial version on all the customer PCs at our tech shop and they always come out with 0 file fragments left behind, and some drives are *really* dirty...

[jftuga]

See the thread in the 'Software Hangout', Whats the best Defragmentation Software. It is a sticky, so it will be at the top, but here is the direct link:

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=18603

-John

[RJARRRPCGP]

P.S.: since I had a problem with the NVRAIDSERVICE and deinstalled it I cant access O&O anymore... Says the machine actively refuse the connection! Anyone has any idea why??

That error message is supposed to mean that it failed to access 127.0.0.1. Thus it's strange that unloading the service you're talking about would cause that.