USB BackUp Fragmented ?

[Toppack]

Hello,

I downloaded the SD upgrade that adds USB port capibility,

so thought I would defrag my External Backup USB drive, on which I have copies of Internal Hdrive partitions and W-7 Backup files.

It worked great until it got to the Backup, which took about 3 hours to complete, and according to the scattered red blocks diplayed, it ended up being more fragmented than it was to start with.

I then tried doing an 'optimize' but the time estimate to complete was 16 hours, so I stopped it and gave-up.

Evidently Smart-Defrag doesn't like doing BackUp files ???

[Toppack]

I also discovered that there is now 37.GB LESS free space on the drive, than there was before the defrag attempt, which is very Aggravating! :cry:

I'll try doing another Backup, to maybe recover the Lost space.

 

I'm posting this to Warn everyone 'Do not attempt to Defrag drives with 'Backup' files with Smart-Defrag', it Don't work. :?

[Toppack]

I could Not Recover the Lost space, so I Deleted the Backup files, which recovered it, and now doing another complete backup. :roll:

Oh well, I learned something. :lol:

The Hard Way! :!:

[Toppack]

It appears that all the Lost Hard-drive space was Not recovered after deleteing the Backup and doing a new one. So, looks like a Format of the drive and redoing the Copies and Backups will be required to restore the mess SD made of the drive. :roll:

This process won't be very difficult but it will take a 'Lot' of time. :sad:

and I will temporarily Not have Backups while I'm doing this. :sad:

 

I hope IObit has plans to Fix this Problem, so this won't happen to someone else! :!:

[Toppack]

I'm curious why No one at IOBit has replied to my questions about this Serious Problem ?

 

Is it being worked on?

 

???????????????????

[itobe]

Dear Toppack,

 

Sorry for the late reply and sorry for the issue happened to you.

 

Evidently Smart-Defrag doesn't like doing BackUp files ???

 

The answer is No.

 

As I know, USB driver, Solid-State drivers and other flash drivers are different from Hard Disk driver. They have limited life "read and write". So we recommend our users not to defrag them. FYI, a screenshot of Smart Defrag was attached.

http://forums.iobit.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=5859&stc=1&d=1282634852

 

I would defrag my External Backup USB drive

It worked great until it got to the Backup, which took about 3 hours to complete.

I then tried doing an 'optimize' but the time estimate to complete was 16 hours, so I stopped it and gave-up.

 

We know, USB dirvers have much slower speed than Hard Drivers, so the process would take more time.

 

Hi Toppack,

 

Hope this would helpful.

 

Best Regards.

[Toppack]

Hello, Itobe

It seems you Missed the Problem I'm concerned about!

 

I had no problem doing the USB drive, it just happened when trying the latest SD Update, which gives USB capability.

 

The problem is that SD greatly Fragmented the 'Backup' files (not copies),

and made 37.GB of that drive Unuseable. (had to format to recover it)

 

The problem is if you try to defrag a drive with W-7 Backups on it,

(would probably do the same thing with Backups of other Operating-systems and on sata or ata drives)

Not a problem with USB drives !

[itobe]

Hi Toppack,

 

Sorry for my misunderstanding.

 

Your problem is that when you tried to defrag a drive with Windows 7 Backups files on your Hard Disk with Smart Defrag, it made your 37 GB hard driver unuseable. Right?

 

I have forwarded it to our specialist team for further investigation.

 

Thank you.

[Toppack]

Your problem is that, it made your 37 GB hard driver unuseable. Right?

.

 

Yes, almost correct.

Actually 37.GB of a 500.GB drive was made Unrecoverable.

 

(179.GB was used by Backups before running SD and 216.GB used by Backups after running SD)

(There were also copies of regular files, on that drive, that SD did Not have problems with)

 

I'm guessing that SD can't process the large, compressed and different 'Backup' type files and made copies that it could not recompile.

 

Thanks,

[enoskype]

Hi Toppack,

 

Sometimes, to put a check to checkbox, then Apply and close SD, then open and clear the checkbox and apply is the solution for a function to work.

So, please try it on "Skip files larger than xx GB" checkbox.

 

Cheers.

[Toppack]

Hello, Enoskype

Thanks for the suggestion, but I won't be using SD to defrag my Backup drive anymore. It required a lot of work and time to recover the lost space and I don't want to experiment with it and maybe that happening again.

I can use the Defrag that comes with W-7 to do that drive, if needed.

 

A warning should be included somewhere in the program, so that won't happen to other people, if the Problem can Not be fixed.

[solbjerg]

Hi Toppack

Good idea - I think though that defragging backups is mostly a waste of time - quite apart from the possible mishaps that can happen during this process.

The probable gain in speed will be mesured in milliseconds.

If I get the urge I usually do it by copying the file to another location and then copy it back after deleting the original folder, this way it will usually get defragged without loss of function, provided nothing untoward happen during the process - like loss of power or closing down in the midst of the process.

But I agree that a message about that could be helpful in the program.

Cheers

solbjerg

 

 

Hello, Enoskype

Thanks for the suggestion, but I won't be using SD to defrag my Backup drive anymore. It required a lot of work and time to recover the lost space and I don't want to experiment with it and maybe that happening again.

I can use the Defrag that comes with W-7 to do that drive, if needed.

 

A warning should be included somewhere in the program, so that won't happen to other people, if the Problem can Not be fixed.

[Toppack]

I think though that defragging backups is mostly a waste of time

 

Yes, I completely Agree.

In my case the Backups just happen to be on the Same external drive with many regular file copies which did need to be defragmented. :cry:

[solbjerg]

Hi Toppack

In my view you could try to move the backups to another place and then run a defrag on the rest in your external drive - or copy the regular files to somewhere else (i.e. a temporary folder on you desktop) delete them in the external drive and then copy them back to the external drive

By the way is it possible to defrag your external drive with the Windows defragmenter?

Cheers

solbjerg

 

Yes, I completely Agree.

In my case the Backups just happen to be on the Same external drive with many regular file copies which did need to be defragmented. :cry:

[Toppack]

By the way is it possible to defrag your external drive with the Windows defragmenter?

 

Yes, as I said, that's what I'll be using for my backup drive.

 

So, are you saying that IObit can not or will not be trying to Fix this Problem in Smart-defrag ?

 

It seems that just Bypassing all Backup type files and not attempt to defrag them would be simple to do in the software code?

Or would it be more difficult than it sounds?

[enoskype]

Hi guys,

 

For a long time I was insisting to have exclusion function. I have not lost my hope yet and expecting it in SD version 2. :-P

 

Cheers.

[Toppack]

Okay, Thanks for the Info.

 

Did everyone hear that? There's Supposed to be a Version 2 :-P

*************************************************

[Guest doramider7]

Actually 37.GB of a 500.GB drive was made Unrecoverable.

 

(179.GB was used by Backups before running SD and 216.GB used by Backups after running SD)

(There were also copies of regular files, on that drive, that SD did Not have problems with)

 

I'm guessing that SD can't process the large, compressed and different 'Backup' type files and made copies that it could not recompile.

 

Thanks,

 

 

 

 

[Toppack]

I'm guessing that SD can't process the large, compressed and different 'Backup' type files and made copies that it could not recompile.

 

Yep, That's what I figured.;-)

It did make a Pretty Red Checker-board fraged-blocks display, Tho. :-D

[Metalace]

I then tried doing an 'optimize' but the time estimate to complete was 16 hours, so I stopped it and gave-up.

 

Im quessing everyone missed this part. No wonder why you lost 37 gbs of space you didn`t even optimize it. If you had actually took the time to fully optimize it you wouldnt have lost those gbs. Its always best to take the time to do a full deep optimize.

 

So all that extra deleting formating etc you did was unnecessary. The time estimates are never right anyways. So maybe next time have a little more patience cause SD isnt a 5 sec defrag. And i wouldn`t say SD is broke for those drive types, since you didnt take the time to let it fully do its thing.

[Cicely]

Hello,

I then tried doing an 'optimize' but the time estimate to complete was 16 hours, so I stopped it and gave-up.

Evidently Smart-Defrag doesn't like doing BackUp files ???

 

Hello,

 

The remaining time is always changing with the defraging status. If you give more time to let it run, you will see the remaining time changes greatly.

 

Normally, it will not take more than 2 hours to finish this work.

[Toppack]

If you had actually took the time to fully optimize it you wouldnt have lost those gbs.

 

No, the problem occured during a 'Simple' Defrag. Which is a problem!

The HD space was lost and the backup files were greatly fragmented during the initial defrag try,

Not during the optimize analyze.

An Admin of this website has already stated that SD can Not do Backup files without problems, anyway.

[Toppack]

Well, I solved my little problem.

Since my external hard-drive box will hold 2 drives, I added a 2nd 1TB drive to it.

Now I have one drive for 'Backup' type files and another for file 'Copies'.

I was running out of space on the one drive anyway. :???:

 

Hey, it only took a little 'Time & Money' ! :lol:

Since 'Version-2' of SD is not released Yet! ;-)

[Toppack]

During my search to solve this problem I found a Great little Drive Testing Utility called 'HDDScan' at tucows.com. I just noticed that it will test SSD devices as well. Do a search at tucows, if you need it.

The temperature monitor should be a useful feature for SSDs, altho I've not tried it yet.

 

Quote from tucows:

"The program can test storage device for errors (bad sectors), show SMART info and change some HDD parameters (AAM, APM, etc). Software can be used as the HDD temperature monitor and reading/writing benchmark with performance graph".

[Toppack]

I just noticed that there is a difference in the reported hard-drive Temperature in the 'HDDScan' utility from temp reported in the system cmos firmware.

HDDScan is 2 to 3 degrees C lower than cmos. Why I don't know, since you would think they would be reading the same source?

I don't know which is more accurate, but probably the cmos.

 

I thought I should post this Info for anyone using the 'HDDScan' utility, since I suggested it.

Other than that it appears to be reporting accurate data.