May I add another cent or so to this? (The jackpot is accumulating).

Peter says, rightly, that excess defragging imposes extra wear and tear on
the hard drive. Quite so.  I can't say I've ever noticed any real-world
improvement after defragging, even when fragmentation has been up to 5%.
The usual recommendation is to defrag after about 3-4% fragmented. You
could probably let it go much more than that before things start to slow
down. Maybe it depends on the size and amount of free space.

I agree with Ian---defragging is greatly over-rated.

Peter's comment about wear and tear got me thinking.  If the drive is
seriously fragmented (let's say 20%), then isn't that little read head and
arm going to be whizzing about hither and thither fetching all those
fragments from all over the drive, every time any action takes place?  And
won't all that whizzing create more wear, some of which might be lessened
by a defrag?

So my thoughts about the wear aspect are that there must be a tradeoff at
some point. Might an occasional defrag be beneficial in saving a lot of arm
travel over longer periods?

I've never seen inside a hard drive, so this is really only a thought
experiment. (About the only thing Einstein and I have in common).

Maybe one of our mathematicians could calculate the distance the head
travels during a 3% defrag on a 60GB full hard drive, compared with the
distance it travels over let's say 3 weeks of intensive computer activity
working 5 hours daily. You might get some interesting answers.

To me, hard drive technology is one of the greatest achievements of modern
mass-production.

Don Penlington
 From the beach at Surfers Paradise.
http://www.geocities.com/donaldpen/
for sunny Queensland photos, fractal art, free computer tutorials, and more.

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