ImportListFromBootOptimize

[rlarno]

Jeroen,

Does the ImportListFromBootOptimize function import the list from the volume it is working on or from the currently running volume?

I have a disk with 2 partitions:
C: is Win XP SP3
D: is Win Vista SP1

If I boot in Win XP and run SlowOptimize on the D: drive, what does "%SystemRoot%\Prefetch\Layout.ini" translate into?
Normally, in batch-file expansion, it would come up with "C:\Windows\Prefetch\Layout.ini" right? Now what I would like it to expand to while running "SlowOptimize.MyD D:" is the Vista Layout.ini file, since what I intend to do is optimize the Vista partition.

Thx, Rudi

[jeroen]

Does the ImportListFromBootOptimize function import the list from the volume it is working on or from the currently running volume?

Neither. The "%SystemRoot%" is a Windows setting. If you have booted XP then it should point to your XP windows folder, if you have booted Vista it should point to the Vista folder.

If I boot in Win XP and run SlowOptimize on the D: drive, what does "%SystemRoot%\Prefetch\Layout.ini" translate into?

See your "c:\Program Files\MyDefrag\MyDefrag.log" file, but I think it will be "C:\Windows\Prefetch\Layout.ini". MyDefrag contains a test and will only apply the boot optimization sorting to the volume where it found the "%SystemRoot%\Prefetch\Layout.ini" file, in this case "C:".

what I intend to do is optimize the Vista partition.

Boot Vista and run MyDefrag there. If you run MyDefrag in XP for the Vista disk then it will not be boot-optimized (at all), so you may want to use the "-e" commandline option to exclude the Vista disk while in XP, and vice-versa.

[rlarno]

Jeroen, thanks for the explanation.

I should have known it works that way, since as you point out, it is a windows environment variable.

So.... the question then becomes: is it possible to find/detect the layout.ini to use on a certain volume, and thus optimize according to that file.
Its not as simple as it seems, as a disk can contain multiple installations: XP, Win2003 on a single partition. Vista (afaik) always needs to be installed on its own partition.

But if there were to be only one single \Prefetch\Layout.ini file on a volume, and you are processing that volume, would it be possible to use it?

[jeroen]

But if there were to be only one single \Prefetch\Layout.ini file on a volume, and you are processing that volume, would it be possible to use it?

I suppose so, yes. Please note that the contents of the file is a long list of filenames. The filenames must exactly match the current situation, in other words, the volume must be mounted on the same drive. For example, your Vista disk is mounted on D: when XP is booted, but is it also mounted on D: when Vista is booted? If not then the contents of the file will be different.

[poutnik]

In time I have played with PerfectDisk and its Boot optimization, there were several options for it.

AFAIK basicly there were 2 level of optimization:

1st: real boot file optimization
2nd: 1st level + frequently used files from layout.ini

first level was usually small and about constant.
Second was much bigger and was changing often, causing disk start zone reordering.

According to size, I would bet MyDefrag uses the 2nd one.

[jonib]

Inspired by this thread I got an idea and looked in my layout.ini.
As I have most of my programs and windows user profiles on my D: drive (Not my OS drive), I assumed that the layout.ini file should have many references to my D: drive and I was right.
Based on this thread and the help, ImportListFromBootOptimize will only work for the OS drive (Mine is C:)
This means I can only partly optimize my boot process using MyDefrag with the ImportListFromBootOptimize feature.
It seems unnecessary to restrict ImportListFromBootOptimize to the OS drive.

jonib

[jeroen]

It seems unnecessary to restrict ImportListFromBootOptimize to the OS drive.

Are you saying that your layout.ini files contains references to files on both the C: disk and the D: disk? That is interesting, I didn't think that was possible. If so then it is better that I remove the test, it is only there for performance reasons (skipping the import).

[jonib]

It seems unnecessary to restrict ImportListFromBootOptimize to the OS drive.

Are you saying that your layout.ini files contains references to files on both the C: disk and the D: disk? That is interesting, I didn't think that was possible. If so then it is better that I remove the test, it is only there for performance reasons (skipping the import).

Yes my layout.ini contains references to both my C: and D: drives, on my WinXPsp2 system.

jonib

[jeroen]

Yes my layout.ini contains references to both my C: and D: drives, on my WinXPsp2 system.

Ok, thanks for the feedback!

[poutnik]

My bootOptimize part of "Zone 2" is estimated to have 3-4 GB size on vista64.

[DIRTY_DEALER]

My boot.ini also has files listed on c, d, and e drives. All these files get sorted.

Windows XP 64bit

[rlarno]

Please note that the contents of the file is a long list of filenames. The filenames must exactly match the current situation, in other words, the volume must be mounted on the same drive. For example, your Vista disk is mounted on D: when XP is booted, but is it also mounted on D: when Vista is booted? If not then the contents of the file will be different.

You are quite right, my scenario of booting one partition to be able to better optimize the other partition no longer makes sense. Thanks.

Yes my layout.ini contains references to both my C: and D: drives, on my WinXPsp2 system.

Whoo, big eyeopener for me, did not expect this either. Makes the whole 'bootoptimize' a whole level harder I assume. As I assume that the current logic of mydefrag is to process a volume at a time and not process the bootoptimization for all non-removable and mounted volumes as a whole? Right?

Now, I would not really expect this as a standard feature of MyDefrag. Would be nice, though 

[jeroen]

As I assume that the current logic of mydefrag is to process a volume at a time and not process the bootoptimization for all non-removable and mounted volumes as a whole?

Not as a whole, no. MyDefrag will read the "layout.ini" when processing a volume, and simply ignore listed files that are not on that particular volume.