Hard Drive management, defragging etc advice.

[kol12]

I was just wondering how much benefit there is to defragging your data/game hdd and how often? Obviously the more often it's done the shorter it takes...

Do you prefer to have your document, download and picture folders location moved to your storage drive rather than the OS drive? I tend to think the files would load faster from the ssd but in the event of OS malfunction they may have been better on the hdd...

I'm concerned about the reliability of the data/game hdd for storage. I suppose anything critical on this drive should be regularly backed up... I suppose the point is, is that my data hdd being a game drive also gets a fair bit of use along with regular defragging so I am concerned as to anything critical being stored on this drive also...

 

[atomicWAR]

Well you are correct in thinking critical data should be backed up. While defragging will speed up a drive I have had issues with regularly used drives that also got regular defrags corrupting my media files (mostly movies/TV shows). Video would become skippy and/or blocky even fail all together. One reason why I typically back things up at least once if not twice when one of those drives seeing regular/daily usage.

 

[kol12]

Do you still defrag with those issues? What do you use for regular various folder/file backup? I use Macrium Relfect free for regular system image backups and I think a paid version allows individual folder/file backup so I guess I'll look into that.

 

[atomicWAR]

i run a drive pool that sees regular use on my primary rig plus I run a server that has dual back ups in case one on the server fails and my primary rigs file get corrupted. But to answer your question yes i still defrag. My server never needs it cause I rarely use it but back up or restore...defrags on auto but roughly once every few months the server needs it while my primary rig gets it once or twice a week.

 

[kol12]

Do you use a 3rd party defragger? Piriform Defraggler picks up a lot of fragmentation that Windows doesn't...

 

[USAFRet]

Do you still defrag with those issues? What do you use for regular various folder/file backup? I use Macrium Relfect free for regular system image backups and I think a paid version allows individual folder/file backup so I guess I'll look into that.

The paid v7 of Macrium does individual folders.
It also allows actual reading of the files inside a .mrimage file. Opens up in Windows Explorer, just a regular file system.
I believe the eventual free v7 will do this as well.


As far as defragging? Just let Windows handle that on its own schedule. No need for you to invoke that all the time.

 

[atomicWAR]

I use nortons for scheduled maintenance but use windows when doing it myself. I am aware there are better solutions but my aim is for good overall performance with minimal hassle. The absolute best defrag is not as important to me as ease of use, as long as it performs well enough, considering the number of machines i run.

 

[Phillip Corcoran]

I use Piriform Defraggler but I'm not paranoid about fragmentation.

I run the Analyser first, and if fragmentation is less than 6% I don't bother.

 

[atomicWAR]

I use Piriform Defraggler but I'm not paranoid about fragmentation.

I run the Analyser first, and if fragmentation is less than 6% I don't bother.

for me its 10% but yeah I agree with you whole heartedly about not being to paranoid defragging.

 

[RolandJS]

If you decide to nolt use Windows' built-in defragger nor its scheduled task, either Auslogics' or Piriforms's defragger used once monthly should work just fine.

 

[kol12]

Do you still defrag with those issues? What do you use for regular various folder/file backup? I use Macrium Relfect free for regular system image backups and I think a paid version allows individual folder/file backup so I guess I'll look into that.

The paid v7 of Macrium does individual folders.
It also allows actual reading of the files inside a .mrimage file. Opens up in Windows Explorer, just a regular file system.
I believe the eventual free v7 will do this as well.


As far as defragging? Just let Windows handle that on its own schedule. No need for you to invoke that all the time.

I think we've discussed this before but can you not pull individual files from a Macrium system image if you really needed to?

How well does Windows handle defragging of storage hdd's? When I ran Piriform Defraggler the first time it reported a large amount of fragmentation so I wondered how well Windows was actually defragging the hdd.

 

[USAFRet]

Do you still defrag with those issues? What do you use for regular various folder/file backup? I use Macrium Relfect free for regular system image backups and I think a paid version allows individual folder/file backup so I guess I'll look into that.

The paid v7 of Macrium does individual folders.
It also allows actual reading of the files inside a .mrimage file. Opens up in Windows Explorer, just a regular file system.
I believe the eventual free v7 will do this as well.


As far as defragging? Just let Windows handle that on its own schedule. No need for you to invoke that all the time.

I think we've discussed this before but can you not pull individual files from a Macrium system image if you really needed to?

How well does Windows handle defragging of storage hdd's? When I ran Piriform Defraggler the first time it reported a large amount of fragmentation so I wondered how well Windows was actually defragging the hdd.

With Macrium v7, yes you can find and extract individual files from the .mrimage file.
You can navigate it just like any other drive or partition.

 

[kol12]

With Macrium v7, yes you can find and extract individual files from the .mrimage file.
You can navigate it just like any other drive or partition.

So that means extracting individual files from a full system image rather than a file/folder backup? This is/was not possible in the free v6 edition right?

Is there currently no free Macrium versions? It seems to get the upgrade to v7 you need to have a previous licence key...

 

[USAFRet]

With Macrium v7, yes you can find and extract individual files from the .mrimage file.
You can navigate it just like any other drive or partition.

So that means extracting individual files from a full system image rather than a file/folder backup? This is/was not possible in the free v6 edition right?

Is there currently no free Macrium versions? It seems to get the upgrade to v7 you need to have a previous licence key...

Yes, extract individual files from an image of a whole drive or partition.
This is new in v7. I assume there will be a free v7 like there is for v6.

 

[kol12]

I'm kind of confused, does Macrium no longer offer the free version 6 on it's website anymore? Maybe because free v7 is coming?

I also found this: http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/macrium_reflect_free_edition.html Not certain what version that is...

 

[USAFRet]

I'm kind of confused, does Macrium no longer offer the free version 6 on it's website anymore? Maybe because free v7 is coming?

I also found this: http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/macrium_reflect_free_edition.html Not certain what version that is...

v6 free, here:
https://www.macrium.com/reflectfree

"Macrium Reflect v6 Free Edition is available now.
Coming soon: Macrium Reflect 7 Free Edition!"

 

[kol12]

Ah, just took some looking. https://www.macrium.com/reflectfree

 

[kol12]

You beat me to it.

 

[kol12]

With Macrium v7, yes you can find and extract individual files from the .mrimage file.
You can navigate it just like any other drive or partition.

Well that's nice, because it's likely the'll always be some file/folder that isn't part of your file/folder backup that you may need one day...

Where did you hear Macrium v7 free would include file/folder backup? Would you say the paid home edition is necessary for the average user or more the advanced home user?

 

[USAFRet]

With Macrium v7, yes you can find and extract individual files from the .mrimage file.
You can navigate it just like any other drive or partition.

Well that's nice, because it's likely the'll always be some file/folder that isn't part of your file/folder backup that you may need one day...

Where did you hear Macrium v7 free would include file/folder backup? Would you say the paid home edition is necessary for the average user or more the advanced home user?

I did not hear that it will include file/folder backup. It may or may not. Just have to wait and see when it releases.
But we're talking of 2 different things.

1, the ability to image individual files or folders
2, the ability to browse through a .mrimage file, and extract individual files, rather than having to resurrect the whole thing.

I purchased v6, because I liked it that much. I am a cheap bastid, and if the free version is sufficient, I would almost always use that.
But MR has worked flawlessly, so I decided to buy it. With no expectation of the features that now appear in v7. The free upgrade to v7 was just icing on the cake.

My system is set to do a Full image of each drive individually, and then 14 days of incrementals. I can open up any of those intermediate Incrementals, and see the version of a file as it was last Tuesday. Or yesterday. Or any other day in the last two weeks.

 

[kol12]

@USAFRet Do you not do file/folder backups? Are you happy with those files being backed up in the system image instead? I'd like to do individual file/folder backups on my data drive, so if that doesn't become available for free I may purchase Macrium, although I'd have to decide whether the other features were worth the price as it's not the cheapest yearly subscription...

I could image the whole drive but I can't see the point of imaging close to 1tb of games just to be able to backup documents on the same drive...

 

[USAFRet]

@USAFRet Do you not do file/folder backups? Are you happy with those files being backed up in the system image instead? I'd like to do individual file/folder backups on my data drive, so if that doesn't become available for free I may purchase Macrium, although I'd have to decide whether the other features were worth the price as it's not the cheapest yearly subscription...

I could image the whole drive but I can't see the point of imaging close to 1tb of games just to be able to backup documents on the same drive...

I used to use SyncBackFree or FreeFileSync for individual folders.

With the Macrium Incremental function, only those files that have been changed get backed up into that night's incremental. Takes maybe 2 minutes per drive.
Every 2 weeks, that all gets rolled into a Full image. 1 for each drive. Which takes maybe 15-20 mins per drive.
But that's all automated to do it when I'm at work or asleep.

And the paid Macrium is not a yearly subscription. Buy it once, done.

 

[kol12]

I used to use SyncBackFree or FreeFileSync for individual folders.

With the Macrium Incremental function, only those files that have been changed get backed up into that night's incremental. Takes maybe 2 minutes per drive.
Every 2 weeks, that all gets rolled into a Full image. 1 for each drive. Which takes maybe 15-20 mins per drive.
But that's all automated to do it when I'm at work or asleep.

And the paid Macrium is not a yearly subscription. Buy it once, done.

Would you still recommend SyncBackFree or FreeFileSync for individual file/folder backups?

 

[USAFRet]

I used to use SyncBackFree or FreeFileSync for individual folders.

With the Macrium Incremental function, only those files that have been changed get backed up into that night's incremental. Takes maybe 2 minutes per drive.
Every 2 weeks, that all gets rolled into a Full image. 1 for each drive. Which takes maybe 15-20 mins per drive.
But that's all automated to do it when I'm at work or asleep.

And the paid Macrium is not a yearly subscription. Buy it once, done.

Would you still recommend SyncBackFree or FreeFileSync for individual file/folder backups?

Yes, they're OK.

And just to be clear, the file/folder backup in the paid Macrium still results in a .mrimage file.
Browsable in Windows Explorer with v7.

SyncBackFree or FreeFileSync results in the exact same folder as what was on the source drive. Regular files and folders.

 

[kol12]

Yes, they're OK.

And just to be clear, the file/folder backup in the paid Macrium still results in a .mrimage file.
Browsable in Windows Explorer with v7.

SyncBackFree or FreeFileSync results in the exact same folder as what was on the source drive. Regular files and folders.

But you can still extract the file/folder from the .mrimage file when needed though right? As long is it is making regular backups of that file/folder is all that should matter...

I might give SyncBackFree a go just to get some regular file backups going separate to my OS drive images with Macrium. Eventually It may be easier to have Macrium do everything. What's the difference between SyncBackFree and FreeFileSync and can they run automatic schedules like Macrium?