Too many moves?

[JR]

I use the "Fast Optimize" script, so the data on my hard drive is organized into five Zones, with a Gap/free area in between each Zone.

When I add new data to my drive, it is placed in the first free space it finds -- Gap 1 on a freshly defragmented drive.  If that new data happens to be a "spacehog" file, it appears that the following occurs when I next run "Fast Optimize":

The new data is moved from Gap 1 to Gap 2 when MyDefrag is "Vacating" Gap 1;
it is then moved from Gap 2 to Gap 3 when vacating Gap 2;
it is then moved from Gap 3 to Gap 4 when vacating Gap 3;
it is then moved from Gap 4 to the end of Zone 5 when vacating Gap 4;
and finally it is then moved from the end of Zone 5 to the middle of Zone 5 (if there's a big enough empty space) when "FastFilling" Zone 5.

Is my observation correct?  Is new data potentially moved up to five separate times?  If so, is there any way to direct MyDefrag to send spacehog files directly to Zone 5 on the very first move?

JR

[jeroen]

Your observation is correct, it can sometimes happen that a new file is moved like that. Windows does not always create all new files in the first gap on the disk, though. At the moment there is no way to change this, other than removing all the gaps in the script.

[JR]

Thanks for the quick response.

JR

[Kasuha]

I thought it can be done by using the DoNotVacate parameter in AddGap command... but after reading the documentation, it sadly doesn't work.

A fun part is, if there is a middle part of a fragmented file in the gap, it doesn't get moved out, only if that file's start is there.

In my opinion, FastFill should take all files under zone start as being somewhere 'far far away' and just fill them into the zone the same way like any file which is not in its place.

MoveDownFill is another case but its use is very specific. However even it should be changed IMO because if somebody needs to keep his files sorted, he probably doesn't like the fact that if a zone boundary gets shifted, all files from the start of the zone are moved randomly around the disk instead of keeping their order.

The fact that gaps get vacated mean problems on very full disks - vacated areas just decrease free space available for defragmenting the rest of the disk and MyDefrag never uses them again even though they have enough space to e.g. defragment a large file in the back. Changing the Defragment command to be able to use gaps for defragmenting and Fill commands to move files back up from them would make defragmenting full disks easier.