Defrag?

[cybernut]

Hi

I was just wondering if the Axim needs the equivalent of defrag. As we add/remove programs on our new toy, I'm sure the memory must be a mess right about now... unless it automatically rearranges memory during a soft reset. What do you think?

C

[rhyno]

There are defrag utilities around...

One of them is StorageTools. It handles scanning, formatting, and defragging.

Dunno if it's a necessity, but it couldn't hurt I guess...


--RHYNO

Does defraging a solid state device matter? Its not like the CF card spins.

Or do I not know what I'm talking about? ;)

[red-i]

I dont 'see fragmentation being an issue considering that almost everyone is using solid state storage. with "RAM" all areas of memory can be accessed in the same timeframe (hence the 'random' terminology in RAM), which differs from a platter on a disk where the read arm has seek to various points in order to retrieve the data, accounting for longer read times when data is not placed in consecutive sectors.

however, for those who are using microdrives, defragging could certainly help.

[TSB8C]

"red-i" is right. Defragging is a waste of time on a solid state device as there is no benefit achieved. Any byte of data can be read from any location of RAM in exactly the same timeframe with no delays like waiting for a disk to spin a particular sector under the read/write heads.

[cybernut]

Thanks all... I guess I won't worry about it for now.

C

[NMkiD]

However you might want to format your CF or SD cards if they start giving you truoble, and there are some good tools to do that with:



Flash Format, and I think theres a few others but this one works well.

[Forge]

Originally posted by TSB8C@Jan 28 2003, 05:30 PM
"red-i" is right. Defragging is a waste of time on a solid state device as there is no benefit achieved. Any byte of data can be read from any location of RAM in exactly the same timeframe with no delays like waiting for a disk to spin a particular sector under the read/write heads.

That doesn't apply to CF or SD cards however. They are formatted in the same manner as a hard drive might be - in this case they use FAT. Because of the way that files are written to such a file system there is potential for fragmentation.

Right because a CF card is not a hard drive, and is all solid state and truly random access. Because of this, I can't see much of any benefit to be derived from doing a defrag on one, especially since any storage on one is short term, which means that any fragmentation that occurs is gone when the files are erased.

[red-i]

yeah I didn't say that CF cards coudn't fragment.. of course anything on FAT (or NTFS) can fragment, just that it won't make a difference in terms of performance. I guess someone could fragment the hell outta their CF card and do some benchmarks if they really wanted to

[aja8888]

Defrag not needed. No hard drive. Only flash memory.

Case closed. :D

[derobbie]

My CF card became really slow after 2 weeks of installing and removing programs I noticed this when trying to watch video files. Files that had been running nicely (whith audio and video synchronized and everything) became very slow.

I downloaded Storagetools by Softwinter. It worked excellent on my (SanDisk) SD card, but when I tried to use it on my CF, it just started deleting folders (and the files in it). The memory properties showed: space available: 244.48 MB, space used: 244.48 MB

I don't really know what happened, but the card was wasted. I even couldn't format it in my external reader. (USB I mean) I got my money back from the shop. (Yes, it was a SanDisk, but I don't know if that was the real problem)