Defrag problem?

MyST wrote on 8/22/2004, 5:02 AM
I captured a regular 8mm tape via my Digital8 camcorder and the Sony capture utility right in Vegas 4.0. Everything was fine. I captured 2 hours without a single dropped frame.
After, I figure I'll use everyone's advice and defrag my drive before shutting down the PC and calling it a day.
The problem is the Windows defrag utility defragged everything on the drive *except* for the captured clip. I'm left with a 25Gig block of red.
When I checked the DETAIL section after, defrag told me some of the drive couldn't be defragged, the only thing listed was the captured media.
Am I missing something here...trying to defrag right after a capture without any editing to the clip? I haven't loaded the clip into the timeline yet. Will having it as a veg file help matters?
I'm asking these questions before trying them out because I'd still like to know if this is normal behaviour.

Vegas 4.0 latest build
Windows XP Home
Standard Windows defrag utility

Thanks

Mario

Comments

Chienworks wrote on 8/22/2004, 5:11 AM
I'm guessing that the reason the drive couldn't be defragged is because it isn't fragmented. It sounds like you captured a solid 25GB file to an empty drive. There shouldn't be any fragmentation at all at this point. Of course, i would have expected a message more along the lines of "0% fragmentation. Defragmenting complete."
Orcatek wrote on 8/22/2004, 5:29 AM
How much freespace is there on the drive? You need enough room to move the file if it is fragmented.

Also, if the capture program didn't release the file properly, it would be in use and not possible to defrag. If this is the case reboot and it should defrag.

farss wrote on 8/22/2004, 5:36 AM
I've had this problem but it really isn't a problem. Most likely you don't have enough free space for defrag to work on the file.
In any case there's not a whole lot to be gained by defraging it anyway, I mean it's nice to have it defragged as it may give slightly better preview and render times but with most PCs and drives unless it was really badly split the effect would be pretty minor. It certainly doesn't affect final quality or alter the risk of anything going wrong, it's just another data file.

One problem with defrag in general is it doesn't optimise the empty space, so even after defragging you soon get files fragmented again, I've tried out Perfect Disk which seems to be a lot smarter.

Bob.
MyST wrote on 8/22/2004, 6:45 AM
There's lots of free space, so that isn't it.
I've rebooted and it's still doing the same thing.
I should mention that the fragmented files, represented by the colour red, are all together, giving one big block of red. Usually, fragged files are snippets here and there, no?
Maybe it's a shortcoming of the Windows defrag utility?
I'll demo other defrag utilities, and see if that cures it.

As an aside...
I've got 2 120Gig SATA drives and a 40Gig 7200rpm ATA drive in a USB2.0 enclosure.
I've got the first 120Gig partitioned 40Gig for OS and apps/ 80Gig Temp Media that I capture to.
The second 120Gig is for my Vegas/Acid/Sound Forge projects.
So I capture to my first drive, and when I've got the project underway, I always save to the second.
My Quantum is for my Acid loops/Vegas loops.
Is this the best configuration? Or could this be part of the problem of the captured media being shown as fragged?
Would you recommend another config?
I have NO money for a third SATA right now.

Thanks for the help.

Mario
MyST wrote on 8/22/2004, 6:59 AM
Update:

When I saved my project to my 2nd drive, I selected "Copy with media". So my 24Gig project is now a veg file. I defragged the second drive after copying. It did show heavy fragmentation before defrag, however it successfully defragged that drive.
It still refuses to defrag the first.
I can now delect the captured clip on the first drive anyways.
The question remains... why can't Windows defrag the captured clip on the first drive?

Mario
kentwolf wrote on 8/22/2004, 12:56 PM
You may want to consider getting DiskKeeper.
(http://www.executive.com/diskeeper/diskeeper.asp)

If defrags *much* faster than windows XP's built in defragger (also made by Executive Software), and I believe it does a *deeper* defrag.

As mentioned earlier, if you don't have much disk space, you cannot always do a thorough defrag.

There is a free demo, so there's nothing to lose.

I've used DiskKeeper for a few years now and have been very pleased.
johnmeyer wrote on 8/22/2004, 1:30 PM
For heaven's sake, find something else to worry about!! As I've written many times before, defrag is seldom going to make a difference, and since you are not having a problem, why bother. Get on with your project and don't worry about it.
riredale wrote on 8/22/2004, 2:33 PM
Amen. I've also heard that the NTFS file system typical under XP is much more tolerant of fragmentation than FAT32. Why that would be true, I don't know. In any event, disks are so fast these days compared to the paltry 4MB/sec rate of DV that fragmentation isn't the issue it was 5 years ago.
stormstereo wrote on 8/22/2004, 2:39 PM
On my data drives there's snippets of red, as you say, on my video drive there's mostly huge chunks of red. Video files are huge. If the very start of a video file is captured to a place at the beginning of the disk and the rest at the end, the whole file will be red although it is continous, except for that little bit in the beginning. Understand what I mean? So performance will be good anyway because almost the whole file is continous. This is not a problem. And, why defrag after capture? It'll only take time. Always clean up the disk and defrag before capture. It's quick as hell with an almost empty drive. When you then capture it'll place the files as continous as possible.

Best/Tommy