Re: hdd defrag

[Peter Cordes <peter@llama.nslug.ns.ca>]

On Fri, Apr 20, 2001 at 11:14:35AM -0700, Jeff Coppock wrote:
> I was wondering if it's necessary to defragment ext2fs or reiserfs?  I do this on a regular basis with my Windoze machines.
> 
> What utilities could be used for this, if it's recommended?

 ext2 is smart, and does a good job of not fragmenting files.  search the
web, lots of good info is out there.  Reiserfs is also smart like that.
(BTW, it's the allocation algorithms in particular that are smart.  They put
new files where they will have room to grow without fragmenting.)

 If you have an almost-full filesystem, there won't be room to avoid
fragmentation, so you should avoid that.  ext2 is most efficient when less
than 90% full, or so.  (I don't know what a good cutoff value should be, but
90% is probably reasonable.)

 There is an ext2defrag or something around, so you can use that if you want
to.  Most people never defrag their FSes, and have no problems with them.

-- 
#define X(x,y) x##y
Peter Cordes ;  e-mail: X(peter@llama.nslug. , ns.ca)

"The gods confound the man who first found out how to distinguish the hours!
 Confound him, too, who in this place set up a sundial, to cut and hack
 my day so wretchedly into small pieces!" -- Plautus, 200 BCE