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  • #2229746

    registry cleaning vs defrag

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    by froggieb ·

    What is the difference? How often should one or both be used?

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    • #2478378

      Clarifications

      by froggieb ·

      In reply to registry cleaning vs defrag

      Clarifications

    • #2478356

      Completely different

      by dan.cox ·

      In reply to registry cleaning vs defrag

      Registry cleaning is the removal of none applicable registry entries.
      Such as when you uninstall an application, sometimes it leaves behind registry entries with information. just in case you reinstall the application.

      Defraging has to do with the blocks on information on your hard drive.
      As the information on your hard drive is updates such as when you make changes to a document, it is opened up and saved to the next block. These blocks of information become fragmented. No longer in squential order. Defraging puts the blocks back in order which makes the accessing of those files faster. It finds them in one large block rather than having to find all the individual blocks all over your drive.

      I think the intervals for doing these things is really a personal choise.
      Registry cleanup is not highly recommended. If you delete the wrong thing by mistake you can really damage your system.
      As for defraging, I do mine every two weeks. I know others that do it weekly. Others who only do it once a month…. If you google degraging you can read up on the logic behind it and decide the interval for yourself.

      • #2478653

        thank you

        by froggieb ·

        In reply to Completely different

        I appreciate the help and answer. Makes more sense now.

    • #2476697

      Defrag and it’s frequency

      by sancretor ·

      In reply to registry cleaning vs defrag

      Dan has explained it nicely. I’ll just add a couple of points since it is a subject I find interesting.

      When windows writes to the disk, it does not necessarily place the file as one contiguous block. Instead, it may split the file into fragments and place these fragments in the free spaces between other files to fill those up. Now, when this fragmented file needs to be read sequentially, it takes longer since the drive has to collect the fragments from various locations on the platter. It also increases mechanical wear and tear on the drive, increases power consumption and reduces drive life. Fragmentation of files can in turn induce fragmentation of new files being written to the disk, so it is a dynamic problem.

      Defragmentation (defrag) rearranges these file fragments in one contiguous block, improving the drive I/O performance.

      As for the frequency of defrag, it depends upon how much you use the PC, how much the drive is fragmented etc. Once a week or every two weeks is usually okay for most general users. For those whose work involves heavy disk activity, probably more frequently would be good, but it would be a YMMV thing.

      With the newer automatic defragmentation approach, there is no need to guess when to defrag, or to schedule a defrag for the odd hour. Fragmentation is monitored automatically in the background and if it crosses a threshold, the defragger kicks in automatically but only when there are free system resources available for defragging. Auto defragging has advantages of efficiency and cost over the older scheduled/manual defrag approach since it’s a self managing process and no user intervention is required.

      Regarding registry cleaning…don’t mess with the registry unless you know exactly what you are doing. Otherwise, you are looking at a windows reinstall lol. Atleast have a backup of the working registry before you go around modifying it. And beware, most of the ‘registry cleaning’ programs do more harm than good.

      • #2476685

        Safe Mode

        by johnjackson1132 ·

        In reply to Defrag and it’s frequency

        I always, ALWAYS De-Frag in safe mode. Defragmenting in Windows is not always the best option, because…certain files that are in use, when the PC starts up, cannot be arranged since they are in use. Boot up into safe mode, do a disk defrag, Voila, you WILL notice a difference. I do this weekly.

        • #2476618

          Nice tip

          by interrupt ·

          In reply to Safe Mode

          Thanks for the great tip! I never thought of doing it that way!

        • #2478651

          thank you

          by froggieb ·

          In reply to Safe Mode

          Thank you for your response and helpful tip.

      • #2478652

        thank you

        by froggieb ·

        In reply to Defrag and it’s frequency

        I appreciate your response to my question. I will do a defrag and then probably do one monthly. I will be sure to stay away from the registry cleaners.

        • #2477606

          Reg Cleaners = Death

          by johnjackson1132 ·

          In reply to thank you

          Yes, as previously stated by anothe gentleman, avoid those. There have been cases where one consumer will remove what he/she thinks are old registry entries, and in reality they are still active. All it takes is ONE major registry removal to kill the OS. I recommend backing your registry up, via…

          Start –> Run –> Type regedit –> Click at the top of the work list, should say “My Computer”…File and…Export…in the event you do lose a registry file, you can always reinstate the old registry.

          Note: When de-fragmenting in safe-mode it will take longer, seeing as its doing more work, and it’s more accurate.

      • #2477376

        Re:Defrag and it’s frequency

        by acropolister ·

        In reply to Defrag and it’s frequency

        I am now regular with the drive maintenance tasks and have an automatic utility to monitor and control fragmentation so that it does not grow out of control. I think the frequency would depend on the frequency of adding and deleting data. As a general rule, perhaps after a disk cleanup would be idea.
        Have never tried cleaning the registry. The PC runs fast now anyways.

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