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Large blocks of fragmented flies XP
Norbert5
Posts: 930
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This old pc restarted twice last week and got a recovered from serious error message.
Today its done it a few times and keeps locking up .
It was a new install of XP about 10 months since and has had very little use so hasn't got many files on it so was surprised to see the hard drive so messed up
Today its done it a few times and keeps locking up .
It was a new install of XP about 10 months since and has had very little use so hasn't got many files on it so was surprised to see the hard drive so messed up
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Rather than worry about the fragmentation, I would diagnose the cause of the lockups, and only then come back to look at it.
I tried a different defrager Ultra defrag and it appears to have done a better job than the windows defrag.
http://ubuntuone.com/5pvMHzshWWluAfSHehuFwc
Not to say it's impossible for fragmentation to have an effect but more often than not it's either a RAM fault or software throwing a wobbly that causes lock-ups.
You will soon know however if the fragmentation was connected to the lock-ups or not. They will either go away, in which case it was fragmentation, or they will continue, in which case it's something else.
One thing you can do is look in Event Viewer for any error messages. If you see anything occurring regularly just before it locks up then that may provide a clue as to the cause.
Memtest. UBCD contains it.
Or, if the PC is locking up, the fact that you're hard resetting it will cause the serious error recovery as it's had an irregular shutdown.
Try safe mode and do an error-checking on the disk.
Run a diagnostic tool. UBCD has plenty manufacturer specific ones.
This will assure you that you're up the wrong tree with the disk.
Lockups could be caused by AV drivers, or faulty hardware (GFX card or PSU).
If I may make an observation - you seem to be spending a lot of time investigating problems with XP machines that don't have a great lifespan left (and probably don't perform that well).
It might be time to invest in a new PC and I say that without hesitation as the best advice I can offer to all your recent requests.
I do have a slightly newer one running Mint but got these old Xp's out because I needed to use a wireless adaptor and it isn't as easy as it used to be getting them to work with mint .
Used to be plug and play.
Fragmentation means file reading/writing is slightly slower because the HDD heads have to move around more.
Fragmentation Is not a serious error or problem and wont cause lockups or blue screens.
I'd suggest turning off automatic restarts:
Next time you get one of these crashes it'll probably blue screen with an error code. Write this down in full (the codes, that is, not the entire text of the message) and plug them into Google for a pointer as to what's going wrong.