JethroXP, you are truly right... I would be using a disk defrag on my WHS if there was one built in and did a reasonable job and worked without messing things up. No reason not to.

My biggest beef is that I tried two different defrag programs (and both expensive) for my MSS and had issues with both messing up my file systems somehow. I documented them somewhere in this forum.

For now I will let you guys experiment with your machines while I follow Microsoft's advice and just say no.

When someone who runs a defrag program on the MSS can show a 5% or better improvement in disk access and has run it for 6 months without issues, then I will start using it. Fair enough?

_________________
John E Pombrio
Do not meddle in the affair of wizards, for they are subtle and quick to anger.

A long time ago, on the MS forum, this tool was suggested. And, it is free. But now no defragging is suggested.

Ben

would using the build in defragger even hurt the MSS since VSS (shadow copies) was disabled on the HP. Maybe this is the exact reason that it was to spare the end user a lot of headaches when they ignored the message and did it anyhow.

Shadow copies are still used though, by the backup I think. Yes it's disabled if you RDP in and look at the drive properties, yet with an add-in like Disk Manager you can see space being occupied by shadow copies. After runnign the backup cleanup, the space used by shadow copies dropped significantly.

Agreed and I use PerfectDisk

I have purchased and been using Perfect Disk for 4 or 5 weeks now.

I only have about 225 GB of pictures, Videos and other data stored on my MMS so I have Perfect Disk set to Smart Placement.

It takes about 2 hours to process my 4 500GB internal, 2 500GB and 1 640GB external drives.

Everything seems to be working fine.

I did make a back up copy of my nonreplacable data on a portable External Hard drive just in case somethin was to get lost or corrupted.

_________________
Chris Bickerstaff
HP MSS DataVault X510
Core 2 Quad Core Q9550s
4GB Mushkin Ram
TR4MB eSata Enclosure
TR4UB USB Enclosure
Netgear WNDR3700
UPS APC 1500 XS LCD

Im using perfectdisk 2008 for 6 months and had no problems. I have it set to only defrag. There is an option to optimize free space, etc but I do not enable this

_________________
HP MediaSmart- 2GB RAM - Upgraded CPU LE-1620
APC UPS - 1300VA
10.5 TB ( 6.5 for Data 4 for backup )
CFI ESata 4 Bay Enclosure
San Digital 4 Bay Enclosure-USB ( for backup )
3 Apple TVs - Streaming from MSS
2 Xbox 360 - Streaming from MSS

I'm looking to jack my memory.

advice is to fix the page file after.

I see the recommended steps are to disable the page file.
defrag
then enable the pagefile with same min and max so that the page file gets written once in a coniguous spot on the disk.

How do i defrag?

Is it safe to defrag just the c partition with the windows defragger or not even that?

Or should i get a trial of one of these add ins?

That'll work, or you can use this:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysi ... 97426.aspx

It runs at boot, before Windows uses the page file, so it can defrag the file.

_________________
:: Mark

thanks

That utility looks neat

I've used it for years on a slew of different machines, always had excellent results and never had a problem.

All of the SysInternals stuff is _excellent_ - even though MarkR and BryceC sold out to Microsoft.

_________________
:: Mark

Use O&O defrag, don't know if it helps but gaves you peace of mind.

Since its about refund time I am planning on getting some stuff for the server. One being a defrag (maybe). I was wondering since it has been quite a while since the WHS has been out is there a clearer vision if this is or isnt needed. I would also like to hear what people think is the best solution. Does some of the 3rd party solutions work around certain files not being able to be defraged do to being open by OS. my understanding is that this keeps the page file fragmented.

I've been using PerfectDisk for WHS since I bought the system in Nov 2007, my systems been fine with it all this time and I would quite happily recommend. The added bonus of a free copy for a desktop made the decision an easy one as well.

I'm intrigued to see the performance gains on WHS using one, it's hard to prove as it sits there streaming and backing up my systems but I'll try benchmarking v10 soon.

There are options to defrag the system files on boot, and I have mine set to do that without any problems, other than a slower than normal startup. You can download a 30 day trial for WHS from Raxco and see how you go?

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Lots of debate about how necessary a defrag tool is. No one really seems to have published any numbers showing it helps in a server like this.

That said, I have been using PerfectDisk for about a year and it runs nicely. I do recommend it if you want a defrag tool.

_________________
....JBick

EX475, 2 GB, LE-1640
PC1: Vista-->W7 Ultimate/32, (D-Drive RAID-5 Array)
PC2: Lenovo Laptop, Win XP Home SP3
2xLinksys WRT54G v1.1 and 2xNetGear GS105 Gbit switch