In message <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, Dilwyn Jones <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes
>>>But after all the trauma, I wish I'd known about the 'Manage' window >>>before, it makes life so easy. >> >> It has always been there ... :-) ... although now hidden from casual >> use. >What comes of having such a simple life on a QL I suppose. Want to >format something? Just enter a FORMAT command :-( Umm ... but that is what they are trying to prevent the casual user from doing ... for example formatting their hard disk by mistake ..... >>>BTW, I just ran a Defrag on my C: drive, the difference it's made is >>>amazing. Makes me wonder how I put up with the sluggishness >>>recently - >>>it's months since I last defragmented the hard disk. >> >> You can check with a graphical view of the hard drive as to whether >> it >> needs a Defrag - use the Analyse option. >> >> Every time I use it I get the reassuring answer that the hard drive >> does >> not need a Defrag. >> >> So, what have you been doing to in recent months ... deleting or >> moving >> a lot of files around ... ? >Yes. I'm normally conscientious about things like Defrag and backups, >but it's months since I last remember defragmenting. You may have made quite a few changes on your hard drive, although it does build up over time. >>>Which has made me think - do QL hard disks (QXL.WIN or QUBIDE) ever >>>need defragmenting? If so, how do we do it? (Never thought about >>>that!) >> >> As far as Windows is concerned it is just one large file, so it >> cannot >> itself be defragmented - which is what happens to the hard drive >> surface >> area having gaps between areas of occupied data and areas not >> occupied >> by data. >> >> The Defrag with DOS/Windows packs the data together, removing the >> fragments that got separated to be a whole continuous area of data. >I could see that happening as Defrag reported its process. It takes a >while to do it, but you can see how much better the layout is >afterwards. I have a 512MB QXL.WIN with my QPC2, and about 75% of that >is used, which is why I wondered about QL files within the QXL.WIN >becoming fragmented or not. > >> Internally I don't know how the QXL.WIN holds its directions to >> information. Yet it will not be affected by defragmenting. >> >> I guess someone can look all this up in the manuals ..... >Be interesting to know the answer. But, I suppose, if fragmentation of >QL files is a problem in the long run, I guess someone would have >written about it by now. I believe that it is outcome of the FAT16 and NTFS systems ... ? As they write data to next available space, which means that an item can become scattered across a hard disk surface. It doesn't happen in QL world ... :-) -- Malcolm Cadman _______________________________________________ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
