Hard Drive management, defragging etc advice.

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kol12

kol12

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Jan 26, 2015
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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...
 
Solution
USAFRet


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.
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SBF and FFS are pretty much the same. They can run on a schedule.
For me, Macrium (and the NAS box) has taken over all those duties.
 
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So you do full images of all your drives? I'm playing around with SyncBackFree and it looks pretty good, allowing for specific file/folder profiles.

I don't know if you game much, but would it really be of any benefit to image a large amount of game installations? First of all you'd have to have the space to copy it to and second, scheduled backups of this amount could take some time? I think I'd prefer scheduled backups of more important particular file/folders that are on the same drive...

Can you just clear this up for me, with Macrium v6 free I could not extract certain files/folders from the .mrimage files in the event of OS loss, I could only restore the whole image, is that right? The reason I ask is because I store my important documents, pictures and downloads on my OS/ssd, so I wondered if they may be better individually backed up until I decide on Macrium v7. I think the option to pull certain files from an image is quite important as you may decide to reinstall an OS rather than restore an image...

Do you guys change locations of document, picture and download folders to data drives rather the OS drive? I figured if they were being backed up it wouldn't matter and you have the benefit of things loading faster off the ssd...

 
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Yes, I do full drive images of the 4 relevant drives.
A Full image takes 15-20 mins, depending on how much data. My C drive which is at ~155GB takes around 16 minutes.
The nightly incrementals take approx 2 mins each. It is just the changed data.

Macrium v6 Free, you could neither do file/folder images, nor extract individual files .
Macrium v6 paid adds the file folder capability. Macrium v7 paid now brings the extracting individual file capability, along with more scheduling options.

I do not know if the Macrium v7 Free will have that capability as well. Just have to wait and see when it is released.

Doc locations? Yes, changed to various places. I like to be able to reinstall the OS without worrying about those things.
 
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"...But you can still extract the file/folder from the .mrimage file when needed though right?"
"...Macrium v6 Free, you could neither do file/folder images, nor extract individual files..."
I did not know this! I have been using v6 pay-for since I began using v6. Thanks for the heads-up.
 
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From the paid v7:
klB9uDn.png


Browse image gives it a drive letter, and opens it up in File Explorer, just like any other regular folder.
 
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So file extracting has only become available in v7? Apart from Document, Download, Picture folders etc a lot of programs store program specific settings and profiles in folders other than these. If you were to reinstall Windows would you be happy to extract these sort of files from a Macrium image rather than making individual backups of those files before the reinstall?

I'll admit when I upgraded and clean installed Win 10 I made backups of those sort of odd placed files right before the reinstall. It sounds as though Macrium file extraction could take the stress out of that tedious job...

How do you keep a track of what programs you have installed, portable's etc? If you suddenly lost your OS what would your reference to installed programs be? The Macrium image? What I mean is, sometimes a lot of program setup.exes, program zips etc get deleted.

There really is a bit to think about for backups isn't there!
 
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This is what the whole drive image is for...:)

But for a full clean reinstall, I have a list of all important applications, settings, serial numbers, etc.
And the relevant install files. All saved.
For the general utilities, ninite.com
 
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Yes, file extraction from the Macrium image I think is a must have, maybe it will be in Macrium v7 free soon enough or else I will buy it.

Would you recommend then to actually backup your download folder and not delete downloaded apps? I know some people would think of this as junk... Is the important applications, settings, serial numbers something you do by hand on a schedule?

Is ninite an auto updater utility?

Sorry, I hope I'm not asking to much from you here!

 
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Some things I keep the actual original install file.
Things like...
the $1,000 CAD package. Adobe Lightroom, Paintshop Pro, any specialized hardware things.
Most other things I'd just go download it again.

All the serial numbers are in an encrypted Excel file, and also on a USB stick. This USB stick lives in a corner of the PC case, so it doesn't accidentally get used for something else.

ninite.com is a site to select and easily install a wide range of free and open source applications. Indispensable.
Click click click...select what you want. You download a teeny exe file
Run that, and it installs all the applications you've selected. Bonus, it automatically deselects any added crapware. Like some things try to change your default browser or search engine.
 
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Yeah there are some programs that are very easy to remember and are always updated. I think I will backup the remaining program installers that I find out about along the way.

I'm setting up a profile with SyncBackFree to backup many folders at once, I think this will work well until we see what comes along with the free Macrium v7.

Were you using SyncBackFree for file/folder backup/restore before file extraction was available in Macrium v7?
 
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I've used it on and off, yes.
They are also good for regular file management. Comparing the contents of 2 folders, for instance.
 
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1. I use 3rd party defragger, on the first of the month all drives (7 computers) get defragged, that is more than plenty ( O&O defrager)
2. I perform monthly "images" back up of all 3 main computers (other 4 are test rigs), makes for simple dirty way to fop restore in case of an issue.. I use EASEUS TODO Backup for this purpose, select, point destination.. let it run. this does full partitions backups.
 
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@USAFret

Cheers for the links to SyncBackFree, this should work well for me until we see what Macrium v7 free offers.

I'm curious though, are you sure Win 10's auto defragging of hdd's is very good? Piriform Defraggler seems to report much more fragmentation than Win 10 does...
 
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It's probably 'good enough'.
Not something I would obsess over.

But since my systems are all SSD only...I don't worry about defrag anymore.
 
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Not long after that sequence was shot, he earned the nickname "Spot".
As in, a permanent dark spot inside the monitor, just right of center.
 
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Have Win 10 running Trim on my OS SSD also. I've seen a few people say that they're happy with Piriform Defraggler, maybe it's just a bit better, but yeah no need to obsess on it.
 
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Permanent dark spot inside the monitor, that doesn't sound too good, he get fried in there or something?



 
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I touched the screen a bit too hard and squished him.
 
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Oh monitor damage? No good...

But yeah these things are always crawling over my monitor, is there some sort of attraction to electronics for these things?
 
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No, the monitor wasn't damaged. Just that there was a flat corpse behind the glass.
 
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Oh so he did get in behind the glass. I haven't seen that before but I do see them disappearing in behind the front bezel all the time. They're quite common I just forget what they're called... They seem to have an attraction for electronics...

Hope this isn't not too weird for anyone, but it is a real thing and apparently quite common...

 
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