Defragging Registry vs. Defragging Disk

I apologize if this posted in the wrong forum section and/or already posted, but here goes! When I look at the features of utilities like System Suite or System Mechanic they include both a disk defragger and a registry defragger. I was wondering that if you run a disk defragger are you also defragging the registry or do you need to run a separate registry defragger to defrag it?

 

Hi yeuxbleus,

Locked files like registry hives, the paging file, and the master file table, require boot-time defragging. Although my current defragger, O&O Defrag, has this feature, I have always used either PageDefrag or, for registry hives alone, NTREGOPT. Both freeware.

Nick

 

ronjor and nick s.

Can you clear this up for me please. From my experience, Diskeeper and PerfectDisk do defragment the registry hives during an online defragmentation run, (rather than a boot time defragmentation). PageDefrag v2.3 will show if the hives are fragmented. If they are fragmented, and you then defrag with either of the above programmes, you will find that they are no longer fragmented. I appreciate that the disk defragmenters will not optimise, (remove the free space within the registry), and you need a programme like NTRegOpt for that.

 

I use PageDefrag to defrag my paging files and Registry hives. Lots of other nice utilities at this site, too. Check it out.

 

Okay, now I am confused. If I open PageDefrag it might, for example, tell me that C:\Windows\System32\Config\Security is in 2 fragments. If I then do an ordinary online defrag with either Diskeeper or PerfecDisk and then look again in PageDefrag, it tells me that C:\Windows\System32\Config\Security is in 1 fragment.

 

Same results here after on online defrag with O&O. RegCompact, however, showed the same percentage of registry fragmentation before and after.

Nick

 

nick s and ronjor.

Thank you both for posting back. The RegCompact screenshot is showing that the registry can be contracted by the appropriate percentages, but that is different to saying that the registry hives are fragmented, I think, anyway, lol. (I think I'll get that programme by the way, it looks very good).

Thank you very much for your input and apologies to yeaxbleus as I feel as though I have hijacked your thread.

 

Hi bch,

RegCompact does claim to defrag the registry as well (from the help file):

"What RegCompact Does
==== ========== ====
RegCompact eliminates registry fragmentation by writing the data in the registry out into a
temporary file. This data is written sequentially, so there are no holes from deleted data
or fragmentation. RegCompact then reboots the system, and the compacted registry hives are
replaced when the system starts up."

Just to test, I ran NTREGOPT, rebooted, and looked at RegCompact again and got the following result.

Nick

 

Thanks everyone for your replies. No worries, bch! If we've all learned something from this thread as I have, we're all the better for it.

 

Thanks again nick s for going to that trouble. I suppose the point I'm trying to make is that NTRegOpt, which is a free programme, is all you need. In the help file, it specifically states that it doesn't defragment the registry hives so this is a good, honest, trustworthy programme.

The confusion arises in that other programmes of a similar ilk claim to not only optimise the registry but to also defragment it. You normally have to pay for these programmes but again, from my experience, all you need is the free NTRegOpt, as Diskeeper will defragment the registry hives during an online run. PerfectDisk 6 also does this in my experience, according to the results from PageDefrag, anyway.

Dazed and Confused, I forgot to say on my last post that your recommendation of Sysinternals is a very good one.

Edit.
yeuxbleus, sorry, this post overlapped yours.

 

Thanks, bch. Hope you like it. I use a number of Sysinternals applications.

 

Nice, useful, and well thought out utilities...
I'm with you Daisy!

GF

 

Downloaded and tried the RegCompact programme, thanks again nick s for bringing it to my attention. The help file doesn't specifically state that it works on XP but it does. (The help file specifically states that it doesn't work on ME). Its an excellent programme in terms of the information it gives prior to optimising the registry, see nick s' screenshot. The information given matches exactly the cluster information given by PageDefrag (just multiply the number of clusters by 4 i.e 4k/cluster). PageDefrag shows hive fragmentation but RegCompact shows the free space within the registry that can be reclaimed.

When you click "compact", the programme immediately prompts you to reboot and its as simple as that. RegCompact is donateware. One of the joys of computing is becoming aware of products like this so thanks very much again.

 

You ever have one of those times when you know you are being dense, but it doesn't stop you from asking?...

Nick you said:
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

RegCompact does claim to defrag the registry as well (from the help file):

"What RegCompact Does
==== ========== ====
RegCompact eliminates registry fragmentation by writing the data in the registry out into a
temporary file. This data is written sequentially, so there are no holes from deleted data
or fragmentation. RegCompact then reboots the system, and the compacted registry hives are
replaced when the system starts up."


Just to test, I ran NTREGOPT, rebooted, and looked at RegCompact again and got the following result.

++++++++++++++++++

Nick, maybe it's me, but is RegCompact really claiming to defragment the file?
They say they eliminate holes that result from defragmentation. They say that they write the file out sequentially, so that (as I read it) you have the same fragmented files in the same sequence, only without the spaces inbetween.

So if I follow you, you point out what NTREGOPT did, and not what RegCompact did by way of defragmenting the registry.

Anyway, until now I have relied soley on Perfect Disk. I hate to see my registry entries manipulated, so I have to ask, has this made a noticeable improvement for those of you that defrag/optimize your registries?

-HandsOff
- HandsOff

 

Hi HandsOff,

From NTREGOPT's help file, the developer mentions:

"Note that the program does NOT change the contents of the registry in any way, nor does it physically defrag the registry files on the drive (as the PageDefrag program from SysInternals does). The optimization done by NTREGOPT is simply compacting the registry hives to the minimum size possible."

I think the same can be said for RegCompact. I guess these apps should be called registry "optimizers" or something like that, but not defraggers. After a lot of Googling, I believe registry hives can only be physically defragmented at boot time (as O&O and PageDefrag do). Having said all that, I have seen noticeable improvement after running NTREGOPT for the first time on a system. Not much thereafter.

Nick

 

Hi Nick,

Thats interesting. I guess maybe once you have a system the way you like it it becomes something like a steady state. Most of the chaos is probably over after the first few weeks after installing o/s and major program apps.

I think the "inevitable degradation of the hard drive" over time is pretty well mitigated by using the right (not the built in) defragmenter. At least in my case HD fatalities are usually caused by far more violent means.

-HandsOff