Defragger for XP 64bit?

the_syco

Looking for a good XP 64bit defragger (games have been laggy over the past two weeks). Tried O&O's offering, but that doesn't like XP 64bit

biko

Did you try the internal one? I think it's START > All Programs > Applications > System Tools > Defrag

the_syco

biko wrote: »

Did you try the internal one? I think it's START > All Programs > Applications > System Tools > Defrag

No. I've had to reinstall a friends OS after he used it, and if I ever used it, it did f**k all

NotMe

Try http://www.defraggler.com/.

PogMoThoin

Diskeeper or Perfect disk, not free tho

Capt'n Midnight

backup
wipe
install
restore
- that's the way you were supposed to do it with NT4 !
if the games were on a separate partition would be very easy to do to a second drive and back again , there was something about the mst$ are and how much space to reserve on it if you have zillions of small files when you create a new partiton at the command prompt

does the contig utility from sysinternals work in vista , you could pick which files to defrag

the_syco

PogMoThoin wrote: »

Diskeeper or Perfect disk, not free tho

Cheers: gonna try the Perfect Disk one. Looks alright.

PogMoThoin

the_syco wrote: »

Cheers: gonna try the Perfect Disk one. Looks alright.

They're both good, not that dis-similar to each other. Diskeeper is actually whats in Xp with a few extra functions like registry defrag and boot time defrag. These features are also in Perfect disk.

Overheal

how exactly are your games laggy? The Disk Fragmentation will only have so much to do with it, it generally just governs the loading times. If their unusually unpredictably laggy Id be quicker to blame a background process.

the_syco

Overheal wrote: »

how exactly are your games laggy? The Disk Fragmentation will only have so much to do with it, it generally just governs the loading times. If their unusually unpredictably laggy Id be quicker to blame a background process.

I fully understand what you mean. The games started to lag badly two/three weeks ago.

Example: movement in Crysis equaled extreme lag. I haven't ruled out the mouse being at fault yet, but just going to rule out one thing at a time. If I let the game to play out, eg; let the bad guys jump around, I see no lag, but if I turn, instead of it being smooth, the screen jerks from A to B. Which is not good in a few levels in Crysis (esp the level where you meet Prophet again).

The reason I thought it may be the fragmentation is that when I loaded up DoD:S, the sound was jittery, stopping and staring, on the menu (hadn't even begun playing at this time). Also, the load time, instaed of being the quick wham-bang-load-time, it took nearly one minute just to start running.

I have also ran lavasoft's Adaware, and even though it found a few nasties, it didn't improve performance.

Finally, in the past two/three weeks, my AV has forced Windows to increase it's virtual memory, when doing a scan, which is quite odd. Esp with 3GB's of RAM.

As I've said, all this over the last two/three weeks, means I'm just going through the different things, and checking them off as I go. The next step after I run all of the scans, is to do a system scan, and check if the temps are OK, as something other than a HDD may be at fault. As for the specs, check my sig.

Any ideas, throw them at me, as once I defrag all my game drives (gonna leave the TB HDD alone, as I run no games from it), I'll be looking into what else casues the lag, if the defrag doesn't cure it.

Oh, and one question: does hovering the physical case help? The machine is on the floor, and hasn't really got a good clean in the last 3 or so years.

Finally, the lag I'm experiencing: I last experienced bad lag (about 5 times worse, though) when I had just built the system, but using a sh|te PSU, which I found wasn't giving the system enough power. Must find some way to test the PSU out.

Overheal

Alright just calm down sir, im a collegiate games designer :pac:

the_syco wrote: »

I fully understand what you mean. The games started to lag badly two/three weeks ago.

Example: movement in Crysis equaled extreme lag. I haven't ruled out the mouse being at fault yet, but just going to rule out one thing at a time. If I let the game to play out, eg; let the bad guys jump around, I see no lag, but if I turn, instead of it being smooth, the screen jerks from A to B. Which is not good in a few levels in Crysis (esp the level where you meet Prophet again).

Im gunning at the GPU/CPU here. Your movement is calling up a whole hell of math equations because the game engine has to perform large volumes of matrix rotations and transformations when you do that. It does it for everything else in the scene, yes, but it takes up plenty juice to move the player cam.

The reason I thought it may be the fragmentation is that when I loaded up DoD:S, the sound was jittery, stopping and staring, on the menu (hadn't even begun playing at this time). Also, the load time, instaed of being the quick wham-bang-load-time, it took nearly one minute just to start running.

Typically when a file is already playing (like a sound) it doesnt have to keep loading. It could be the hard drive but its more likely the CPU running at 100% thats taking away runtime attention from your sound. I would have thought the graphics card would take care of that for you though.

I have also ran lavasoft's Adaware, and even though it found a few nasties, it didn't improve performance.

Lavasoft is good. Also try Spybot Search and Destroy; they work good as a pair.

Finally, in the past two/three weeks, my AV has forced Windows to increase it's virtual memory, when doing a scan, which is quite odd. Esp with 3GB's of RAM.

As I've said, all this over the last two/three weeks, means I'm just going through the different things, and checking them off as I go. The next step after I run all of the scans, is to do a system scan, and check if the temps are OK, as something other than a HDD may be at fault. As for the specs, check my sig.

Any ideas, throw them at me, as once I defrag all my game drives (gonna leave the TB HDD alone, as I run no games from it), I'll be looking into what else casues the lag, if the defrag doesn't cure it.

what AV is it? Some trojans are built to kill AV software. Its always possible your AV installation has been compromised in some way. It might be wise to enter safe mode and have it reinstalled. to get to safe mode normally you need to press F8 when you see the windws loading screen at startup.

Oh, and one question: does hovering the physical case help? The machine is on the floor, and hasn't really got a good clean in the last 3 or so years.

Smack me down.
You're running Crysis, the card-melter game, and you're machine hasnt been cleaned in yonks? You sir are a brave man. My buddy lost his brand new CPU when he tried to run crysis, but to its credit, he forgot to use thermal paste to mount it.

Get yourself a can of air from your local PC store (everyone carries the stuff) and clear the innards of dust.

'Hovering', should be good for your airflow.

Finally, the lag I'm experiencing: I last experienced bad lag (about 5 times worse, though) when I had just built the system, but using a sh|te PSU, which I found wasn't giving the system enough power. Must find some way to test the PSU out.

Could be the case. You have to be sure your system is actually getting all its wattage requirements. Anyway, try running the game in low or bare minimum specs. I found it enjoyable enough that way at least

As for the HDDs, you dont post up your disk speeds (RPMs) Im just curious.

incidentally i never thought about the desert camo but I figured the flak jacket scandal stole the media attention.

Ultimately the dropping performance could be from dramatic wear and tear on the components: from some combination of insufficient wattage or overheat or malware.

-annex-

Sounds suspiciously like malware behaviour. If Adaware (absolutely terrible product; ditch it) found malware I'd say it's likely there are some nasties left. Try running the steps in the sticky below:

http://boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055274237

the_syco

Yippee. The defrag did the job. No lag after the defrag of the HDD's containing the game, and Windows.

Overheal wrote: »

As for the HDDs, you dont post up your disk speeds (RPMs) Im just curious.

All standard 7200. Never understood the need for faster HDD's, as I'm only using the machine to game atm.

ST3320620AS - 7200
WD10EACS-00ZJB0 - 7200
WD2500ks-00MJB0 - 7200
WD5000AAKS-00TMA0 - 7200

Overheal

disk speed ups your loading times and file transfer rates. 7200 is grand though. And I assume you do good management with 4 hard drives: Im guessing 1 is purely OS, 1 for games 1 for media 1 for backup?

the_syco

Have a 20GB HDD for Windows, the TB is storage, the rest: storage and games.

the_syco

The boost from the defrag only lasted a day or two, and then back to extreme lag. Thinking it's the heat. Which means I'll be f**ked at Midlans, but I dunno.

Thinking of putting a box below it, so that it gets more air in the front. Also going to look at getting a fan in the front to suck more air in, to ensure that it doesn't heat up as much. Saying all that, I'm probably just going to go for a case one of the lads suggested to me in a previous thread. At the moment, there isn't much air in the room. Two small windows are open the far end of the room.

As it's getting worse as it gets hotter, I do think it's the heat, so I'll be probably going for an Antec with my next paycheck. That and a f**k load of fans should do the trick. Will look into some cheap "air cooling" methods (cheap, as opposed to getting watercooling).

Jonathan

I know you have ruled out fragmentation of the hd. But i just thought id throw out a 64bit defragger for ****s and giggles. :P