First defrag took 8 hours (3.16)

[adam]

First let me say thanks and well done for JKDefrag.

Yesterday I used version 3.16 for the first time on a 160 GB Sata2 H.D (Fat 32).
75% of the H.D is empty.There are 2 partitions on the H.D.
I used JKDefrag in Safe Mode.
The defrag process took 8 hours to complete and I wonder if it is normal OR
related to the fact that I used JKDfrag in Safe Mode?
How about future FULL defrags?Will it take this long?

Note:
JKDefrag's auto processing is nice,but I miss an option
to be able to choose only 1 partition
for defrag.Could you please consider adding such option.

Thanks,

Adam

[cf]

How about future FULL defrags?Will it take this long?

The full optimize mode (-a 4) was removed in v3.14 and replaced by the sort methods, which always move all data on the partition and thus are very slow.
If you mean the default mode, it should be faster in future defrags, because there aren't so many files to defragment/optimize.

JKDefrag's auto processing is nice,but I miss an option
to be able to choose only 1 partition
for defrag.Could you please consider adding such option.

This is already built in, just add the partition you want to defragment on the command line (or use my JkDefragStarter, which generates the command lines for you).

[adam]

Thanks CF.
One more question:
Is it o.k to use JKDefrag in Safe Mode?

[safedisc2]

It should be safe to use it in safe mode

BTW check JkDefrag/doc/index.html

How do I specify an option, or select a single disk (or folder or file)?
Take a look at the GUI wrappers, see the "Contributed by other people" chapter. Personally I find the commandline the easiest way to specify options. Another way is to create a shortcut to "JkDefrag.exe", open the properties of the shortcut, and add the desired commandline options (for example "-a 4") or the name(s) of the disk/folder/file (for example "C:") to the end of the "target" line. For example:
"C:\JkDefrag\JkDefrag.exe" -a 4
"C:\JkDefrag\JkDefrag.exe" D:\

If your harddisk is very fragmented and had a lot of (small) files, it can sometimes take ages.

If you decide to use any sorting strategies (see the index.html mentioned above) maybe it would be faster to 1st move files to the end of disk  -a 6 option and then start the sort defrag pass.

Moving files that don't need fast read access (mp3) or seldom used files ( setup files etc.) to the end of the disk and then excluding them using -e option can speed up the defragmantation in future too.

[JDPower]

Is it o.k to use JKDefrag in Safe Mode?

Yes but it will, as you discovered, be quite a bit slower.

[jeroen]

Is it o.k to use JKDefrag in Safe Mode?

Yes but it will, as you discovered, be quite a bit slower.

I'm surprised, and I wonder what the technical reason is? Maybe the windows cache is turned off in safe mode?

[Ashcan]

I'm surprised, and I wonder what the technical reason is? Maybe the windows cache is turned off in safe mode?

That's what happens. Microsoft even has a note on their site which says: "Your computer can take substantially longer to start up and shut down when running in Safe Mode because all disk caching is disabled."

[RJARRRPCGP]

I'm surprised, and I wonder what the technical reason is? Maybe the windows cache is turned off in safe mode?

That's what happens. Microsoft even has a note on their site which says: "Your computer can take substantially longer to start up and shut down when running in Safe Mode because all disk caching is disabled."

I dunno about Windows 2000 and Windows XP, but with Windows 9x, in safe mode, the HDD probably is also forced into PIO mode!

[jeroen]

"Your computer can take substantially longer to start up and shut down when running in Safe Mode because all disk caching is disabled."

Interesting! Thanks for the feedback, I appreciate it!

[Ashcan]

I'm surprised, and I wonder what the technical reason is? Maybe the windows cache is turned off in safe mode?

That's what happens. Microsoft even has a note on their site which says: "Your computer can take substantially longer to start up and shut down when running in Safe Mode because all disk caching is disabled."

I dunno about Windows 2000 and Windows XP, but with Windows 9x, in safe mode, the HDD probably is also forced into PIO mode!

Interesting thought. I'm not sure if 9x does that or not, but it seems plausible.

[Ashcan]

"Your computer can take substantially longer to start up and shut down when running in Safe Mode because all disk caching is disabled."

Interesting! Thanks for the feedback, I appreciate it!

When dealing with MS, I guess we all need to pass along whatever we can learn along the way.    

There used to be a "rule of thumb" some years ago that you never wanted disk caching on when defragging. The cache delays writing to the hard drive would confuse some of the older defraggers (mainly in DOS as I remember).  Once Windows 9x arrived, fear of a cache problem seemed to slowly fade away.