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Virtual Server 2005

Recent Virtual Server 2005 posts

* file server as guest OS
* Chinese antique
* How to Install VM Additions with No CD-ROM
* Enabling Hyper-V on a VMware 64bit win2k8 guest image
* higher screen resolution?
* Defragmenting/Compacting VHD drives?
* Windows2003Server\VM2005
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* How can I merge undo disk in VS2005?
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* Hyper-V performance - Hardware Reccomendations?
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* Graphics issue trying to install RHEL 5 on Virtual Server
* Virtualise Windows 2008 Server Active Directory
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* Looking for a HyperV expert - small contracting job
* Remote desktop issue
* Supported OS guests
* Help - W2K3 Host, VM Networking Problem

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Defragment versus moving files?

Source: microsoft.public.virtualserver
Sent: 11/18/2008
From: Bo Berglund <(email address - cut out)>
Message:

I have tried to defragment a virtual disk file on a USB connected
drive (NTFS format) using both the built-in WindowsXP defragger and
the SysInternals Contig program. The VHD file is 25 Gb and there is 41
Gb free space on the drive. Not so many files either on the drive.

But it seems like the strategy these programs use is a bit flawed, it
seems like they try to keep the file placement on the disk basically
the same and just try to move certain parts of it together. The net
effect is that there are about 5-6 used areas on the disk with lots of
free space in between, and these sum up to the 41 Gb. But because of
the spread position of these chunks there is no unused space big
enough to house the complete VHD in one piece.

Why is there no switch for the defraggers to tell them to move all
files up front on the drive and leave the free space at the end? This
seems to be the best strategy to handle big files....
If I remember correctly this is exactly how the defraggers/compactors
used to work 10-15 years ago. But not anymore.

Maybe this function is available in some other compaction software?
If so, could someone please publish a link to such?

--

Bo Berglund (Sweden)

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Related Messages

Re: Defragment versus moving files?

Sent: 11/18/2008
From: "PM" <(email address - cut out)lid>
Message:

Bo Berglund wrote:

Dave Whitney's defragger
http://www.flexomizer.com/PermaLink,guid,ce99367e-158c-487a-879d-b32145cc1957.aspx

does what you want. I've used it on XP and Win Server 2003 with no problems.

1) Turn off undo disk
2) Run the defragger (look at the readme - you need to install it with
the -i switch before use - it doesn't put anything in the registry and you
need to copy one file to System32)
3) Run Precompact (this is included as a CD image with Virtual Server)
4) Turn off the virtual machine, Inspect the VHD file and Compact it.

Done.

Show quoted text

> I have tried to defragment a virtual disk file on a USB connected
> drive (NTFS format) using both the built-in WindowsXP defragger and
> the SysInternals Contig program. The VHD file is 25 Gb and there is 41
> Gb free space on the drive. Not so many files either on the drive.
>
> But it seems like the strategy these programs use is a bit flawed, it
> seems like they try to keep the file placement on the disk basically
> the same and just try to move certain parts of it together. The net
> effect is that there are about 5-6 used areas on the disk with lots of
> free space in between, and these sum up to the 41 Gb. But because of
> the spread position of these chunks there is no unused space big
> enough to house the complete VHD in one piece.
>
> Why is there no switch for the defraggers to tell them to move all
> files up front on the drive and leave the free space at the end? This
> seems to be the best strategy to handle big files....
> If I remember correctly this is exactly how the defraggers/compactors
> used to work 10-15 years ago. But not anymore.
>
> Maybe this function is available in some other compaction software?
> If so, could someone please publish a link to such?

Re: Defragment versus moving files?

Sent: 11/18/2008
From: "PM" <(email address - cut out)lid>
Message:

PM wrote:

Oops - step 5, re-enable Undo disk if required!

Show quoted text

>
> 1) Turn off undo disk
> 2) Run the defragger (look at the readme - you need to install it with
> the -i switch before use - it doesn't put anything in the registry
> and you need to copy one file to System32)
> 3) Run Precompact (this is included as a CD image with Virtual Server)
> 4) Turn off the virtual machine, Inspect the VHD file and Compact it.

Re: Defragment versus moving files?

Sent: 11/19/2008
From: "Dave Harry" <(email address - cut out)group>
Message:

A few fragments are not going to make any noticable difference to the VHD's
performance, especially if they're large fragments.
It takes such a long time to read through a 25GB file, especially on a USB
drive, that the extra ~8ms per fragment is not going to slow things down
much overall.

--
Dave Harry

"Bo Berglund" <(email address - cut out)> wrote in message
news:(email address - cut out)...

Show quoted text

>I have tried to defragment a virtual disk file on a USB connected
> drive (NTFS format) using both the built-in WindowsXP defragger and
> the SysInternals Contig program. The VHD file is 25 Gb and there is 41
> Gb free space on the drive. Not so many files either on the drive.
>
> But it seems like the strategy these programs use is a bit flawed, it
> seems like they try to keep the file placement on the disk basically
> the same and just try to move certain parts of it together. The net
> effect is that there are about 5-6 used areas on the disk with lots of
> free space in between, and these sum up to the 41 Gb. But because of
> the spread position of these chunks there is no unused space big
> enough to house the complete VHD in one piece.
>
> Why is there no switch for the defraggers to tell them to move all
> files up front on the drive and leave the free space at the end? This
> seems to be the best strategy to handle big files....
> If I remember correctly this is exactly how the defraggers/compactors
> used to work 10-15 years ago. But not anymore.
>
> Maybe this function is available in some other compaction software?
> If so, could someone please publish a link to such?
>
> --
>
> Bo Berglund (Sweden)

Post Reply | This is Spam! | Mark as Spam

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