Move files starting at the end of the drive downwards?

[rstarkov]

I would like MyDefrag to move the files from the end of the drive downwards, starting at the very last file. All the file actions that I’m familiar with start with the bottommost selected file instead.

Is this possible?

Why I want this: I’d like to free up as much space as possible at the end of the drive, until an unmovable file is hit.

[jonib]

The included Consolidate Free Space script does exactly this.

jonib

[rstarkov]

Thanks, but it does not. I’ve run it for several minutes, and the topmost file did not move.

It might be doing something similar (the end result is that all free space is at the top), but certainly not exactly this (it starts by moving files *below* the topmost unmoveable file, which is pointless for me).

[jonib]

I did a quick test on my c: drive, and Consolidate Free Space script definitely started moving files from the very end of the volume.

Maybe you need to run it a bit longer to see whats going on and maybe zoom in at the end of the volume to see more details.

If it's really not doing that for you, make a debug log following these instructions I have a problem! and attach it to a post, and somebody should be able to figure out why.

jonib

[rstarkov]

Tried again, this time leaving it for longer. It does generally seem to prefer files higher up, but definitely doesn’t treat them as a priority. Here’s a typical operation:



Those files at the very top? Never touched by this script. Unmovable files would have been highlighted with purple.

[jeroen]

I would like MyDefrag to move the files from the end of the drive downwards, starting at the very last file.

The ForcedFill action does exactly that, it moves data to the beginning of the disk, starting with the highest data and working backwards.

Those files at the very top? Never touched by this script. Unmovable files would have been highlighted with purple.

MyDefrag scripts only move data that has been selected. It looks like the FileBoolean in your script is not selecting the data in question.

Tip: see the free Gnome Partition Editor for resizing partitions. It can squeeze the data on partitions as you describe, by itself without the need of a tool such as MyDefrag, and since it does not boot Windows it can move data that cannot be moved by MyDefrag.

[rstarkov]

The ForcedFill action does exactly that, it moves data to the beginning of the disk, starting with the highest data and working backwards.

And so it does! Perfect, thank you!

MyDefrag scripts only move data that has been selected. It looks like the FileBoolean in your script is not selecting the data in question.

I did not actually mean "never" when I said it... my fault They would be touched eventually, I just never waited long enough because the script wasn’t doing what I wanted it to.

Tip: see the free Gnome Partition Editor for resizing partitions.

Doesn’t work for me, as my entire disk is encrypted with TrueCrypt. I’d have to decrypt it first, which is not an option because it’s an SSD that I might want to sell eventually - and I’d rather it had no traces of decrypted files on it...

[woodfold]

If your drive is an SSD, you shouldn't defragment it at all. There's no moving parts, so no savings.

[rstarkov]

If your drive is an SSD, you shouldn't defragment it at all. There's no moving parts, so no savings.

Who says I'm defragmenting anything? I'm just moving files down. Unfortunately it turns out the effort was in vain, since the built-in Windows partition tools can only move the upper boundary of a partition, but not the lower one, so while I can shrink C: using built-in tools, that doesn't let me grow D:

[andublin]

Use Gparted.
I recommend download PartedMagic CD/ISO as the best combination of tools utilities for this stuff. Open source, Free for use even in commercial environments.
http://partedmagic.com (Put it to USB key if wished). Boot from it;

That way gparted can shuffle partition D: down . Gparted will show you the disk and partition names in Linux format: sda or sdb for the disk: sda1, sda2 for the partitions.
And with the current version of partedmagic you can even TRIM a windows XP SSD disk partition!
Command
wiper.sh --commit /dev/sda1
where sda1 is the first partition for example.

[rstarkov]

Use Gparted.
I recommend download PartedMagic CD/ISO as the best combination of tools utilities.

I appreciate your input guys, but I'd like to point out once again that the whole SSD is TrueCrypt'ed, which, I assume, precludes the use of GParted booted off a CD. GParted has no way of seeing the partitions. It would have to replace my Windows bootloader to have a chance of working, which it can only do from within Windows itself, but even then I'm not sure: any raw disk accesses might bypass the TrueCrypt driver.

If I'm wrong, or there's another way, please do let me know!

[Darlis]

Parted Magic has TrueCrypt on board, so you should be able to mount the volumes and rearrange them.