defrag

Citizen Bleys · 04-10-2003, 06:14 AM

Linux (at least RedHat) doesn't seem to come with a disk defragmentation utility; As I understand fragmentation, it's not a phenomena specific to Windows filesystems--Does defragmentation software exist for Linux? Is it necessary? (For all I know, Linux handles fragmentation at the OS level)

I should probably run fsck every week in lieu of ScanDisk...but is that necessary?

wapcaplet · 04-10-2003, 06:28 AM

This is a pretty common question

Yes, there do exist defragging utilities for Linux, but for the most part, it's not necessary. Search these forums for 'defrag' to turn up a lot of previous questions on this topic.

scottpioso · 04-10-2003, 08:37 AM

Hi,

What does that command do (FSCK?? I tried to run it and it told me there are no devices to check? Thanks.

wapcaplet · 04-10-2003, 08:46 AM

fsck stands for FileSystem ChecK. Usually you don't need to use it unless something goes wrong with your filesystem (after a bad shutdown, for example). Read the man page for details.

trickykid · 04-10-2003, 09:00 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by scottpioso
Hi,

What does that command do (FSCK?? I tried to run it and it told me there are no devices to check? Thanks.

And to add what wapcaplet mentioned... when running fsck, you have to specify the device to fsck, by just typing fsck you will recieve that error cause it doesn't know what to fsck.

scottpioso · 04-10-2003, 09:20 AM

Thanks. So, if I want to check my local HD, what is the proper context to run it on the drive if mounted at /dev/hda3?

scottpioso · 04-10-2003, 09:22 AM

As long as we're on this topic, do you know if you can increase your partition sizes on a partition without losing data? ie Partition Magic?

trickykid · 04-10-2003, 09:33 AM

Well always unmount a device before running fsck but it would go something like this:

fsck /dev/hda3

man fsck for more flags and options to run during fsck though.

And you can repartition without losing data. Search for a program called FIPS I believe is called. Not totally sure but try searching and you'll find one that might suit you.

scottpioso · 04-10-2003, 09:39 AM

Does someone know how to unmount the drive currently in use? Sorry, I've just been waiting patiently for a reply here. I know it's very easy to do, but I just don't know how to do it. Thank you.

footfrisbee · 04-10-2003, 01:51 PM

scottpioso,

You can increase the sizes of you partitions or even move some of them with parted.

hamster · 04-10-2003, 04:38 PM

I'm using a ext3 filesystem. Can fsck be used on this as well as ext2 ?

Reading above, is it cruical to umount the drive in question before this? ie, chance of corruption due to other processes possibly having a go at blocks on the device at the same time?

I haven't tried it yet but is it possible to just check specify directories or do they have to be mount points? ie /usr/local ?

scottpioso · 04-10-2003, 05:30 PM

Okay, you bring up a valid point about the device needing to be unmounted prior to running that command. Can someone please tell me how to unmount a drive that I'm currently using? Thank you.

hamster · 04-10-2003, 05:36 PM

as root, umount /mnt/hda1

or could this be done at bootup time......

david_ross · 04-10-2003, 05:56 PM

I think you mean "umount /dev/hda1".

Remember you cant unmount a partition that you need. eg you cant "umount /" for hat you need to use a boot disk.

Try using
http://sourceforge.net/projects/plac

I think it is slightly better than the distro specific ones.

scottpioso · 04-10-2003, 09:01 PM

Thank you David. Right now, I'm tired and I'm going to put my computer to bed for the night. Have a good night gentlemen.