Quote:
Originally Posted by Kevin
.... when I update the baseline periodically, does the drive tend to get defragmented, or does snapshot defragmenter take care of everything?
|
When you update the baseline, you are in fact deleting previous snapshots and recovering sectors that may have been used up by RollBack Rx's sector maps. The built in RollBack Rx defragmenter would recover the space no longer used by the previous snapshots and thus you would regain your disk space.
I did post to another thread regading defragmenting. But I think that this would be a better place to have this posted - so here it is:
...
Our stand on this "Defragger" subject has always been to:
[1] Clean up and Defrag your drives before installing RollBack Rx, so you start with a nice, defragged system.
[2] RollBack Rx has a build-in snapshot defragmenter -- use that to defrag your system once RollBack Rx is installed.
[3] If you really need to defrag the drives with a third party tool: Uninstall RollBack Rx, defrag the drives and then reinstall RollBack Rx.
Defragmenting Files using traditional file level defragging tools -
I'll try to explain the differences here as easily as possible. 
The objective of defragmenting is to optimize the hard drive for efficient use by the Windows Operating System and, thus, improve system performance. Defragmenting tools are Windows based applications - they work by looking for fragmented files and moving them into contiguous extents. Typical file level defraggers move sectors and allocates files as per how "Windows" sees them. Windows wants all the reds close together, Blues and whites in a nicely ordered sequence etc... This is all nice and works great when you have a bare Windows system (one that does not have RollBack Rx installed).
When you have RollBack Rx installed onto a Windows based PC - The Windows OS "sits" on top of another mini OS (RollBack Rx's Subconsole). The OS that boots prior to Windows when you turn on your PC.
When RollBack Rx is installed, it writes its snapshots directly onto the sectors of the hard drive. These snapshots are not saved as "Files", but rather as sector maps. Its' sector based mapping is written in a form that is invisible to Windows. Since these sector maps are not saved as files or folders - Windows CAN NOT see them...
When you run a Windows based file defragger - These defraggers can only organize the files and folders that Windows can see. However, Windows can not see any of the RollBack Rx snapshots and therefore, can not perform a proper file level defragmentation...
Furthermore - Rollback Rx does not distinguish between applications - it just protects your entire root drive (0) - usually your C: Drive. RollBack Rx can not tell the difference from files being moved by a defragger, Word2007 or Photoshop... From the perspective of RollBack Rx - defragmentation of files by a Windows file defragger is seen as a massive "change in data".
eg. If you were to defrag your PC using a Windows file level defragger today... And then roll-back to yesterdays snapshot - The entire process of defragging your drive would have been a total waste of time... You would be back to square one. The defragged version of your Windows files system and data were only contained within a single snapshot.
You see RollBack Rx can not tell the difference between defragging your PC or say downloading a movie. Both actions would consume alot of disk space, and thus your snapshot would be extremely large. (again "Change in data" from the last snapshot)
Conclusion:
After knowing how windows defraggers work and how RollBack Rx looks at defraggers - some people may still prefer to defrag their drives. Our recommendation is to use the steps provided above (uninstall.. re-install). However, we will create a defragger version that will simply automate some of the processes.
Quote:
|
** update RollBack Rx V9.x has the defragger command line switch integrated - see post below on its functionality **
|
In a nutshell the defragger build will:
[1] Allow you to Run the Defragger
[2] Require you to Manually Update the Baseline (all other snapshots will be deleted)
[3] Restart the PC
(basically you would not need to uninstall RollBack Rx and Re-install)
Thanks.