Defragmenting a DVD HD

[wilburt99]

We all know that the HD in a PC needs to be defragmented more or less regulary to keep up the efficiency and speed.

But how about the HD in a DVD-machine? I know that the files are bigger than those in a PC, but after a year or so with deleting of a great number of programmes the order in the HD most certainly is disturbed.

I have sony rdr-hx900 but I can't find anything in the manual or the menues about defragmenting.

Is it done automatically or.....

wilburt

[Soopafresh]

If the drive had been formatted with a Linux file system, then defragmenting would be unnecessary. I've been reading articles recently mentioning that defragmenting isn't really necessary on newer Windows machines anymore, because hard drive speed has increased significantly in the past several years and the boost can't be measured.

[Josef K]

I've been reading articles recently mentioning that defragmenting isn't really necessary on newer Windows machines anymore, because hard drive speed has increased significantly in the past several years and the boost can't be measured.

Where did you read this? That's ridiculous. Current hard drive technology is the slowest component in a PC. Not until there's a switch to solid state will there be any speed benefit.

[nova828]

I don't know about any other DVD/HDD recorders, but on the E80 fragmentation has caused a problem for a number of users. The problem occurs when you record a TV show, edit out the commericals using the "shorten segment" feature, and then record a new show. That new show fills the holes created by the previous edit. Then if you edit that show, record some more, edit, record etc eventually the hard drive becomes too fragmented and the E80 gets into this "Recovery" "Please check the disc" problem that many have reported here. Once that happens its too late, the drive is dead for good and all your shows are gone.

The way to prevent this from happening is to never edit a show on the harddrive and leave it there. Always immediatly dub it to DVD and then erase. Better yet use the playlist feature if possible, as that will leave the original recording intact. Also every 3 months or so dub off all the important shows and completely erase and re-format the HDD.

[wilburt99]

nova828 wrote: Also every 3 months or so dub off all the important shows and completely erase and re-format the HDD.

So if I erase the HD it will be set back to zero? In that case, this simple operation solves the problem.
Up to my knowledge, a re-formatting function is not built in to the Sony 900. So, if in addition a reformatting is needed I'm back on square one.

wil

[chloh]

Yes, Nova828 brought out a good point that I forgot about. Using the shorten function may be fun but I remember now why I stopped using it. By using playlists instead, you leave the programme on the HD as large chunks, and this avoids defrag problems. I used to use "shorten" a lot and ended up with lots of short fragments on the HD which Panasonic may encounter problems with (eg dropped sections during playback).

WHen I stopped this practice, I never had the problems again. Also make it a habit to delete files in large batches, that way u can avoid fragmentation. (ie I leave the programmes on the disc and delete four or five at one go rather than individually, where space permits).

Cheers
ch