Defrag?

[whatchamacallit]

Hi,

I'm wondering: Is it necessary - or would it bring any benefits at all - to defragment or re-format the hard disk of my iriver H310? The reason I'm wondering is that, on Windows PCs, it is necessary once in a while because Windows just is a bit of a junkheap ;-)
By now, I've moved files to and from the iriver so many times that, had I done the same amount of messing on my Windows harddisk, it would be high time to defragment it.
I don't know the filesystem that is on the harddrive, so I wouldn't know. As I can connect the iriver to my PC and it is recognized as just another USB drive, it would be easy to defragment it using my Windows OS - but is it recommendable?
Thanks!
Regards,

whatchamacallit

[Llorean]

It's probably not necessary, but I imagine it could in theory improve slightly your battery life (don't quote me on this, I'm half guessing).

Your H3xx is FAT32 so fragmentation can occur if you copy files to and from it a lot, depending on a variety of factors, so at least having your defragmenter scan the disk and tell you how fragmented it is could give you a little information.

Be aware, defragmenting can involve a lot of writes to the disk if fragmentation is heavy.

[bk]

There was one instance of an H1xx user here that (without dircache) complained that his/her player took literally 5-10 minutes to generate a root playlist. They reported that defragmenting the harddrive dramatically improved the playlist generation speed.

That said, I've never bothered defragmenting any of my players, mainly because there isn't any reliable FAT defrag utility available in Linux.

[pabouk]

The problem with defragmenting is the same like on any other harddrive with FAT32. It could give you speed gain but as Llorean said it is practical to check the actual fragmentation first.

That said, I've never bothered defragmenting any of my players, mainly because there isn't any reliable FAT defrag utility available in Linux.

Of course there are defragmentation utilities in virtually any Linux installation:

Code: [Select]

tar cf /tmp/tempH120 /mount/H120
rm -r /mount/H120
cd /mount/H120
tar xf /tmp/tempH120
rm /tmp/tempH120

[ryran]

Don't know how big the h310's hard drive is or how fast your usb connection is, but if you scan it and it is pretty fragmented, you'd probably be better off wiping it and re-copying everything over in one go than letting windows' defrag util play with it for eons.

[larry_llama]

Don't know how big the h310's hard drive is or how fast your usb connection is, but if you scan it and it is pretty fragmented, you'd probably be better off wiping it and re-copying everything over in one go than letting windows' defrag util play with it for eons.

Agreed... if the drive is badly fragmented, this method would probably do less to shorten the drive life (fewer read/write cycles)

[bk]

Code: [Select]

tar cf /tmp/tempH120 /mount/H120
rm -r /mount/H120
cd /mount/H120
tar xf /tmp/tempH120
rm /tmp/tempH120

Hm. Yeah, I should've thought of that. But even realizing I could I probably still won't bother.

[Multiplex]

Code: [Select]

tar cf /tmp/tempH120 /mount/H120
rm -r /mount/H120
cd /mount/H120
tar xf /tmp/tempH120
rm /tmp/tempH120

Surely this will only work if the Linux FAT driver automatically Defrags the free space list (maybe it does and I'm embarrasing myself) - Windows doesn't

Getting dangerously far from Rockbox though ...

[Mikerman]

Some users at Misticriver have recommended, instead of defragging, deleting the files on the player (after having copied them to a backup disk) and then simply copying them back.  

[Sambolina3]

I never defrag my 30 gb 5th gen ipod, mainly because I end up reformating it on a regular basis bacause  I somehow mess it up .

[caskey_91]

Would it be safe to de frag my 30 gig ipod video (5th generation) It does have alot of fragmented files in it due to me always putting in ne w videos and such along with rockbox stuff. I just want to make sure it won't be damaged in any way at all.

[NPswimdude500]

Would it be safe to de frag my 30 gig ipod video (5th generation) It does have alot of fragmented files in it due to me always putting in ne w videos and such along with rockbox stuff. I just want to make sure it won't be damaged in any way at all.

No, it won't be damaged. It really depends on the amount of fragmentation. Generally if it's less than 10%, you're okay but if it's more than that I usually defrag it. At the moment I'm defragging my PC (not the one I'm posting on) which is 67% fragmented.

That's the other thing - when it's defragging, don't use it. Plug it in as well - defragging can take a while....

[whatchamacallit]

Hi all,

thank you very much for all the tips! So, I guess I'll try. I don't have any Defragger under Linux, either - under Linux you don't often have a lot of FAT drives, do you? - but I'll just use Windows and the built-in Defragger. And of course I'll analyse it first to see approximately how long it could take.
Another question in that direction, then: Would it be possible to reformat the whole thing in ext format and then put Rockbox on it again? Would that destroy the original firmware? I wouldn't mind so much - I booted it a while ago because my wife used it and something didn't work in Rockbox and I realized I had forgotten what the buttons are in the original - but anyway. C.p., ext would reduce/ eliminate the need for defragging, no?
Regards,

whatchamacallit

[Llorean]

Rockbox only supports FAT32, so an ext drive wouldn't work with Rockbox.

[whatchamacallit]

Too bad. Well, I defragged it a while ago and it's fine now.
Thanks anyway!
Regards,

whatchamacallit