defragmetation on mepis

Taken care of if necessary by the system. Not normally needed or anything to be concerned about. Totally diffrent than winders.

jim

Linux file systems can work quite well even up to > 90% disk full. I have worked on disk partitions that have been filled to 95% and still cranked. The "frangmentation problem" of Windows, and the "defragmentation problem" ('cause the tools don't work) do not exist in Linux. Use the time that you would be wasting watching the defrag window learning more Linux

As a related story. Just last week I was at a client's house. She had an 80 GB hard drive. However, the person who built her system partitioned it into a 6 GB and approx. 74 GB partition. The idea being that "data" would be placed into the 74 GB partition. The only problem was, this person knows NOTHING about "partitions" or "C and D drives". So she's been putting EVERYTHING into C:\. She called me when she had "insufficient space". Now, when I found that NUTHIN' was on the D:\ drive, I originally thought I would "move some things around". I first tried to "defrag" the C:\ drive. Well Windows' defrag tool is (ahem) not-very-good (tm) Not only was there less than 100 MB left, but the red lines of "fragmented files" made the drive look like an axe-murder. Did you know that, if a drive does not have enough space left, that defragging will not even run? I did, but I tried anyway. Nope! So not only "insufficient space" but "insufficient intelligence" in the defrag tool. Fortunately, I was able to use other tools to shrink D and expand C, copy the few items on D to C, and finally expand C to become the WHOLE DRIVE. There was no reason for this user to have multiple partitions since she would not be able to maintain it. Better to simply have "C:\" be one drive

Jon

The easiest answer you could be given...
http://geekblog.oneandoneis2.org/index.php/2006/08/17/why_doesn_t_linux_need_defragmenting

I wanted to read what they had to say, but the link doesn't work.

This is a very interesting subject,
Handyman's Special

Here ya go:
http://www.gabston-howell.org/linux/why_doesn_t_linux_need_defragmenting.pdf

Home of the Point-N-Click Help Files
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Hey EnigmaOne, I was able to connect to the first link given by pcatiprodotnet, but I was unable to get to your link. For your link I received a "Forbidden (Error 403)"!

Maybe your server's hard drive needs defragmenting

Jon

Maybe Warren should have built a dummy defrag utility into Mepis--a placebo for nervous Windows users who feel they must be *doing* something to prevent crashes.

--Malanrich

As long as I can boot into Linux I have NEVER had an OS crash. Sure I've had an app act up a time or too. Defrag for MEPIS, good idea, something to watch besides the little fishies. LOL

regards,
Bad Dog
SimplyMEPIS 6.0 - kernel 2.6.15-26-686-SMP - KDE 3.5.3

next person who asks 'why the fishes?', we'll tell them that they defrag the hard drive.

Excellent idea i like that!
jim

Naw... Dummy, here:
uploaded the pdf to the wrong directory on the server. I'll fix that back up when I get to the machine that has the file.

{A real "DUH!" moment.}

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May be we should put it in are Sig.

regards,
Bad Dog
SimplyMEPIS 6.0 - kernel 2.6.15-26-686-SMP - KDE 3.5.3
'why the fishes?', they defrag the hard drive.

Of course there's always e2fsck

Whether it's worth people using it or not i dunno.

On a side note - i believe the quickest way to de-fragment windows filesystems is to copy them to another partition then back again - the files will be written sequencially so should theoretically be un-fragmented afterwards.

acesabe, you bring up a good point. If a person has a spare drive or partition copying to/from is a simple, and often faster, way to "defrag" the data (must be sure to get the "hidden" files however). As a matter of fact, copying to/from another drive or partition is the recommended way of dealing with the too-full-and-messed-up partitions in Linux also. But it of course needs to be done hardly at all. I think I have had to do that ONCE in my entire career, and that was on a Unix system.

The only time that copying to/from is bad, both in Windows as well as Linux, is when it is on the root partition. But now that we have Live CDs even that is not that bad

Oh, the idea of the fishes "cleaning the tank" is a good one

Jon

Uh...Liz?

Maybe I missed something, here; but, {whisper}what fishes{/whisper}?

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ummmmmmmm, that funky, fugly aquarium, thingy, that is the first to go here, right before the weather-thingy.

Ken
--
In a world without walls and fences nobody needs Windows and Gates!
User #104362 with the Linux Counter, http://counter.li.org

Whenever I do a new install the biggest decision I have to make is "do I remove the fishes before the weather or after !!!!"

Try it now:

http://www.gabston-howell.org/linux/index.html
or
http://www.gabston-howell.org/linux/wdlnd.pdf

Home of the Point-N-Click Help Files
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Hmmm... I hate to be the bearer of bad news but it still dont work for me. Still the same "you can't get there from here".... Whoops it does work i clicked the upper url, sorry bout that.

jim

I had to do it that way because Drupal (and it does this from time-to-time enough to be just a bit irritating to me) wouldn't let me edit my own post.

If a mod happens by this way, it would be kind-of nice if he or she corrected the original posting, to reflect the changes I've made immediately above.

Not entirely necessary, you understand, but it would be nice.

NEVERMIND I just got things fixed both ways now. {One should never forget to check file permissions...DUH!}

Home of the Point-N-Click Help Files
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I dump the weather too. The fishes may be a horrid eyesore to some - but they can be useful! When they stop swimming for a couple of seconds, then start again, letting you know that the system is getting hung on servicing some badly configured or unresponsive process - like a DVD being repeadedly spun up, and any attempt to unmount it being met with "device busy", or switching between root and user sessions.

The test is...if grabbing a open window and wizzing it about all over the screens provokes the fishes into stopping, then you are at the limit (swap file being needed?) I know its a lame thing to use as a resource indicator, and I don't particularly like the fish, but on my second install attempt things went better and they now stay moving.

Oh! Haven't seen it in so long that I forgot about it.

Since they're supposed to defrag the hard drive, I ditch 'em right-off. Don't need 'em, y'know.

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I have an idea for a new "unuseless" application! See here for what "unuseless" is:
101 Unuseless Japanese Inventions (Main Page)
http://www.wwnorton.com/catalog/fall95/031369.htm

But my idea for a Mepis unuseless application is to tie the kaquarium to the kweather tool. That way kweather can report the water temperature in the tank!

(Ok, I'm leaving now)

Jon

You probably know this, Darktrax, but for those Windows newbies who seem to frequent this forum in great numbers the correct way to remove a "hung" CD or DVD device is to use the "lazy" parameter of the umount command, as root:

umount -l /dev/cdrom 

(or what ever the dev is). The parameter is a lower case "L".

Then one can use

eject

to kick the CD out of the device.
--
GreyGeek

First off, I like the Fish. They actually give intersting feedback from time to time. I've had a system hang and only the Fish made that clear and quickly. Tying KWeather and KAquarium together is just silly because the temperature in the tank is always equal to the processor temp. How do I know this? It's one of the KSensors plugins.

Anyway, to the topic at hand. Linux USED to have a defragmenting program, 6 or 7 years ago. The EXT2 filesystem wasn't as intelligent as ext3. Neither was it a very hardy system. Forced shutdown tolerance wasn't even built in then. Press the power button and blow your system apart was the rule then. EXT3 changed all that. The heuristics behind the EXT3 filesystem are excellent and it's journalling features make it VERY fault tolerant.

Besides, the girls I go with think the fish are cute.

Michael
=====================================================
"Reality? Oh, yeah. That has nothing to do with me."