Defrag HD

[didikai]

I know that when doing some heavy video capture it is wise to defrag the hard drive.
My question is, If I delete all the files on my data drive, is it clean, or do I still need to defrag.

Thanks

[PTsniper]

I'm not a pro in this stuff but I think you still have to defrag, but wait for some expert to awnser you.

[jsmithepa]

if u delete all your files and run defrag. Defrag will tell you THERE IS NOTHING TO DEFRAG!

[daamon]

if u delete all your files and run defrag. Defrag will tell you THERE IS NOTHING TO DEFRAG!

If you delete all the files on a drive or partition, then this applies. However, if you're tidying up and you delete all the unwanted files, leaving others behind, then I would certainly defrag before doing anything else. Particularly if a lot has been deleted.

[mike1061]

Yes it is still wise to de-frag the hd. IF you have deleted everything, you will get a message something like "there is nothing to de-fragment", then I go ahead and do it anyway. I relate this to me being able to de-frag 2 or 3 times in a row. On the 2nd and 3rd time, the files moved are very few, but IMO if is good to move them if you can. It also takes way less time to de-frag a 2nd and 3rd time, it's the first time, that you want to do when you are sleeping.
Thanks Mike

[rkr1958]

If you've deleted EVERYTHING on your data drive then I'd reformat the drive. Now is the drive clean? It depends on what you mean by clean. As far as the O/S is concerned it's clean. However, if by clean you mean could someone still recover files and / or file fragments then no it's not clean. For that, you need to use some disk wipe utility (e.g., BCwipe).

[AlanHK]

If you delete ALL the files on a drive or partition, then no need to defrag. Defrag moves files, there aren't any. But you must empty the Recycle Bin to really delete, otherwise you'll still have a bunch of hidden files there.

[ark]

And do not forget to scan the drive, because you may have some lost chains or the drive may have errors with size reported wrongly.

[fishywishy]

well technically when u delete a file (drag to trash can) u dont actually delete it, ur just marking it to be overwritten. but if u can, just reformat the hard drive, itll make it run so much faster

[CrayonEater]

If you delete everything, format. No need to defrag because format will rebuild the file system. I don't think you even can defrag an empty drive but if you could, it's probably quicker to format anyway. Even if you have a few files left, it is likely quicker to copy them off, format, then copy them back.

[ultramarine]

Its good to make a separate partion for the operating system, programs and games. Then make a big fat partition for the source video.

Better still, use a second hard disk for target video.

You will save a lot of seek time to improve speed. Also, it won't clutter your disk.