External drive Defrag ?

Should the external drive that is used for backups be defraged? ( Diskeeper )
Thanks
MachineGun

 

If you do, it wont do anything bad but it wont really help either.

 

Thanks
MachineGun

 

Defragging a drive with large backup files takes a long time. Since the point of defragging to to speed up reading, it really doesn't do anything since the backup file is written to the drive being restored which is slower than reading.

The best time to defrag a backup drive is when you have deleted just about all the files on it and can do it quickly. After that, for get it.

 

There has been at least one thread (perhaps others) suggesting that a defrag may have corrupted a TIB image. It wasn't determined exactly what caused the problem, but the end result was a bad image.

 

I have not run a defrag on my backup drive for literally years. I have kept an eye on GBs per minute for image creation and restores. These have remained constant across versions and builds so I cannot believe running a defrag on the backup drive would make any difference.

I do however use an internal slave drive to store the backups but as far as fragmentation or lack of it is concerned I imagine that an external drive would behave in the same way.

Xpilot

 

probably the reason the corrupted image occurred after the defrag was that there was a bad sector that had the image moved there as part of the defrag.

About the only possible way that your backup drive will become fragmented badly enough to cause a performance drop is if it is regularly operated nearly full.

Even having multiple computers write to the same backup media at the same time, causing the backups to be interleaved with each other, the end result in speed will probably not be reduced because when it goes to read an image that has other files interleaved throughout the file since it is still in a largely sequential order, not the random nature of regular fragmentation that causes large amounts of time lost from the drive seeking out those pieces of file in random locations.

 

Hi
Thanks for the reply. If the tib is defraged, could I not re-run the validation and see if it is still OK.
Would it not be a good idea to re-run validation?
Thanks
MachineGun

 

While I haven't check the actual Gb/min, I also haven't found defrag to speed up a system.

What may be better for the OP to do is chkdsk /r to help ensure good backup files.

 

I wouldn't waste time defraging or validating. Defraging takes more time than it is worth.

I'm assuming that you make and keep a number of full images ( don't waste your time with differential or incrmental) ? Once you are happy that a version of Acronis works - that it can be trusted - I would say don't waste time and effort with validation. What is the worst that can happen ? You try to restore the system image you made yesterday - it fails. You simply use the image you made the day before. It seems to me that either Acronis works with a particular harware/software set up or it doesn't. If it works there is no need to validate.

 

Sound like you want to defrag even though everyone here is telling you there is no point to it and it may damage your backups plus it does add a lot of wear and tear on the drive.

People who sell defragging software tell you that defragging is good. Do you think they are biased? Be suspicious. The people here are not selling anything, and they are describing real life experiences.

OK, end of rant.

After you defrag the drive, do the validation check.

To ensure you have maximum benefit, sechedule a defrag every 5 years.

 

Just a brief note about my own defragging experiences.

I have tested Perfect Disk trial version on my main hard drive. After the initial analysis PD reported that my main drive was healthy and there was no need for any further action.
I was a bit surprised by this as I had heard great things about PD as a defragger. It seems that my existing use of the normal Windows defrag tool was good enough. It could also be partly due to the fact that I keep the Windows page file on my slave drive in its own partition. This drive also stores my backup images in another partition.
The slave drive has never been defragged in years of use and its performance in GB per minute is a good as ever it was.

If a defragger looks at one or more .tib files it shows a sea of red signifying fragmented files. My view is that the defragger is mistaken about .tib files. They are not the same as usual files. They image data by used sectors, not on a file by file basis that the defragger expects to see.

Xpilot

 

Hi
Thanks for the help, and yes I do believe you.
Its just that Diskeeper added the External drive to my list of drives to be done in the background without my knowing it.
When I saw the external drive light on I looked to see what was going on and Diskeeper was part way done defraging the drive.
That was why I was concerned as to what if any damage it had done.
I suppose it would be best just to delete it and backup again.
I just got the drive yesterday and hooked it up and I am still learning.
Thanks again for the help.
MachineGun

PS You rant very well

 

Thankl you, thank you. You have made my day!!!!

I'll bet the backups are just fine. Do a valitation to confirm that, but I'd expect them to pass with flying colors. If they don't, then you know not to defrag again. If they pass, then you can stop worrying.

I still wouldn't defrag. Just tell PerfectDisk to skip that external drive, but if you add a new disk that gets defragged, you won't have to worry.