In Windows it was recommended that the hard disk(s) be defragmented regularly. I have not heard of anything about defragmenting on Linux. Does it apply in Linux? If so, how? If not, why not?

TIA

Alan

Here is a good article! =)
http://geekblog.oneandoneis2.org/ind..._defragmenting

Defragmentation is generally not an issue on Linux.

Some defragmentation happens, but, by and large, Linux journaling file systems deal with it in a manner transparent to the user (that is a fancy way of saying "behind the scenes").

I read somewhere--several years ago and I don't have the link--that, with or without defragmentation utilities--the percentage defragmentation on Linux disks is pretty much steady.

Here's a link that might help:

http://www.ehow.com/how_4473590_defrag-linux.html

(Defragmentation is not really much of a performance issue on an NTFS file system either, at least as regards performance, because the NTFS MFT remembers the location of all the pieces of a file and loads them simultaneously. On FAT, the file allocation table remembers only the location of the the beginning of each file, then each successive piece of the file points to the next piece, so a heavily fragmented file system slows performance noticeably. But NTFS does not natively manage defragmentation as well as Linux journaling file systems. The preceding tidbit is courtesy of my Windows 2000 server class in 2001.)

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Thanks for your replies

Alan

haha, linux is better interms of file system

I would say that you don't really need to defragment your HDD in Windows if you have a modern hardware because you probably won't notice any speed improvement. I noticed some speed improvements on Pentium 166 MMX system back in 90's (running Windows 98 SE). But not today.

Not true, Windows Vista run faster after defrag

I think what Mr.Alex was implying is that it's not nearly as noticeable on NTFS as it was with FAT32, and I have to agree. FrankBell's writeup (post#3) gives an excellent explanation on that very subject.

IMHO, FAT32 was a miserable POS, that's why it was only released with one OS (Win98) and replaced 2 years later (Win ME). The way files were (mis)handled created fragmentation simply by booting the system, and fragmentation caused serious performance issues as well as file system errors. That simply does not happen with NTFS.

Back to the subject of Linux fragmentation, after 2-1/2 years running Ubuntu 8.04, my HDD was only 2% fragmented. You won't do that with any version of Windows.

Cheers

I normally don't run defrag on Windows machines with one exception: before installing a dual boot of Linux so that the windows files are all compacted towards the start of the partition that I need to shrink down.