Hey Guys Listen What Does Disk Defragmenter do?

Question

Does It Delete Files? Because I Have a Game Called The Sims 2 And it Makes my computer work so slow! does it deletes things or move files to diferent places cause my wife Has All these files and stuff!

this oustion is for people with the sims 2 and all of it's expansion packs! Will defragment mess up my game and lose all my famlies!!!!

Answer 1

It does not delete files; it reorganizes them. When you delete data it leaves empty space on the disk, but that space isn't necessarily contiguous. The result is several holes. When you add files to the disk it fills those holes, but the files themselves might be broken up across several different locations. If you access these fragmented files, it takes extra time to find all the data. Defragmenting moves data round to keep files as contiguous blocks of data. In the case of severely fragmented drives, it can increase the performance greatly.

Answer 2

No, it does not. At least not on purpose. ;-)

Your computer is probably slow because of spyware and viruses. It's the most common reason these days. You should get the AVG home edition antivirus and try AdAwareSE to get rid of spyware. If this is the problem, you should probably also install a good firewall on your pc, too.

But that's not what you asked. I'll answer the question you really asked:


The windows file systems are pretty crummy and when you write a file say one that is 42K long, it may find 5K free somewhere, 12K free somewhere else, and 25K free in another place. It is really just trying to get your data on disk, it doesn't care if it's in three different places. As a result your file is "fragmented" -- scattered around.

That means that to read your file, the disk has to go to three different places. Disk drives are very good at reading a lot of data at once, but not very good at "seeking" from one place to the next. As a result, more fragments (places) means slower running.

Bad news: if you run windows, you're chasing files all the time. The more files, the more fragmented things get. The more fragments, the slower the disk runs.

So a defragmenter will pull together all the parts of your file and try to write them end-to-end (sort of, but the technical details aren't interesting) so that it doesn't have so many "seeks" when it reads your file. That's all. It is just arranging files sort of like one of those sliding-blocks puzzles.

There are other operating systems where it never gets to be much of a problem at all.

By the way, if you look at control panel/system/advanced/virtual memory and see that windows is managing the page file, you are going to have to defragment fairly often, and it's going to get worse over time. When you get a new pc, you should set the max size and the min size to the same value -- historically 2 1/2 times physical memory, but 2G is usually enough for ANYONE running a desktop. That way you don't end up causing a lot of extra disk fragmenting.

There is also a program called PageDefrag (for free) that defragments the page file. I have seen this make a big difference. If you defragment the page file, and then set the size to be the same min and max (unchecking the "let windows manage the page file" option) then your system will not slow down as bad or as soon.

As far as your system, it is possible that your disk is more than 80% full. It stinks, but windows is notorious for going into "turtle mode" if at least 20% of your disk is not free. Yeah, you only get 80% use of the disk you paid for.

If you defrag, and you make sure you have AT LEAST 80% free, and you use pagedefrag it should be operating as well as it can.

SysInternals also makes some system cleanup/maintenance tools.

Answer 3

Okay, I just got here after everyone talked about defragmenting your machine. I'll just address the Sims 2 thing.

Defragmenting shouldn't lose your families and mess up your game, but it is very wise to work out a way to back up your game once in a while. All you need to back up for the game will by in:
My Documents \ EA Games \ The Sims 2

About your machine running slow:
Your machine may not be an optimal gaming machine so when you run the sims, the CPU slows down to a crawl even if you have adequate memory.

Here's a simple test you can do. Just go to this site and run the test & it will let you know if your machine can run the game and will let you know what you need to upgrade to get up to spec.

In the black box, pick The Sims 2 - or the version in question
http://www.systemrequirementslab.com/referrer/srtest

AFTER you do that and if you want help getting your machine optimal, then go here to EA support and they are very nice and guide you step by step on how to turn off background programs to help slow machines run the game.
http://support.ea.com/cgi-bin/ea.cfg/php/enduser/std_alp.php?p_sid=fdriksgi&p_lva=7805&p_li=&p_accessibility=&p_page=1&p_cv=2.716&p_pv=2.700&p_prods=7%2C700&p_cats=566%2C716&p_hidden_prods=&prod_lvl1=7&prod_lvl2=700&prod_lvl3=0&cat_lvl1=566&cat_lvl2=716&p_search_text=&p_new_search=1

Try the different solutions by yourself if you want, or just go to the contact us tab.

Good luck!

Answer 4

Disk defragmenter simply rearranges files on a hard disk. However shutting of computer during the process, due to power failure may cause data loss.

Answer 5

It compacts all your stuff into one area of your hard drive. it will not delete any files, just free up more available space.

Answer 6

it puts the files back in order, no it don't delete

Answer 7

disk depragment is just arranging your file there is no deletion..

Answer 8

ITS A DEEPER FORM OF VIRUS SCAN USED TO CLEAN OFF ALOT OF ACCUMULATED JUNK AND FREE UP MORE SPACE TO MAKE IT RUN MORE EFFICIENTLY... THE MORE YOU DOWNLOAD...THE SLOWER YOUR ...PUTER OPERATES...SO IF YOU DONT USE ALOT OF THINGS OFTEN ...BETTER TO REMOVE THEM..

Answer 9

agree with them........