Avast on the web

[shgoh]

this is far too paranoid isn't it???

[CharleyO]

What? Someone actually thinks defragging is unimportant??      

Some people never cease to amaze me or make me wonder ... what are they thinking?      

[bob3160]

shgoh
Keep this in mind. When your computer acts as though it was on the internet on a 14.4 dialup connection and, every folder takes it's time to open, it might just be time to defrag!
When your hardrive sounds like a machine gun cause every file has to be collected from all over, it might just be time for a defrag.
The bigger the harddrive, the longer it takes to do a defrag that's usually why it gets put off till we have no choice.
The more files you install and uninstall, the more you harddrive will be fragmented.

[shgoh]

yeah i know..

but then remember we are the masters of the computers....defrag too much sometimes becomes too troublesome & unnecessary...then we becomes their slaves instead :'(

[bob3160]

shgoh
For most people, it's prob. true that a defrag is only needed once per year.
I test a lot of software so, I'm constantly adding, trying and then most of the time uninstalling the program again.
So I do mine about once a month. Since I always defrag when I'm usually not on the computer anyway, it really isn't any bother.

[Johanna]

When I began this thread I asked one question which I really wanted to know. "In what ways does avast help you while visiting web sites?"

No one knows or can possibly know everything when it comes to a computer & things related to it.  Some of the people who are knowledgeable about many things will not know even something that's simple for others.  I see myself as knowing only a fraction of what can be known when it comes to the computer world, so never try to paint myself as an expert on anything.  What ever a person learns comes by 'Instruction, Observation, and Experience' it can be good or bad in these three things.

One lesson I have learned by 'Observation, and Experience' is that it's very difficult to communicate by typing words, you can,t hear the persons voice tone, or see the expressions in the face and many things are left unsaid .  So I find it frustrating trying to communicate by typing.

One of my faults is that I am sort of a perfectionist in some areas, computers being one of them.  I’ll always be learning, but never an expert.  I started like you all did, knowing nothing.  What I have learned I put in practice in the way I do things, which is different from they way each of you do things.  I have learned by 'Instruction, Observation, and Experience' that backups are very important.  All a person has to do is “Observe” the millions of post on the news groups and in forums like this one to see that if a person had a backup they could be free of the problem they are in.  I have also “Observed” that even installing good software or an update can bring a PC down.  I was at our computer club one day when the president of the club installed the latest critical updates from Microsoft before the class began.  During the process the PC locked up and could not be booted, so everything had to be reinstalled…no backup!  So I learned by “Observing and Experience’… make sure you have a backup!  This has also happened to others when you look at the post in news groups.

Another thing I learned by 'Instruction, Observation, and Experience' is the importance of PC maintenance.  I can remember reading in the first Norton Utility help section that they recommend you defrag the free space before you install software to keep files installed in a contiguous order.  Read also the people who are really into games will defrag before and after they install some of the games they play.  They know that if the files are not fragmented in hundreds of places on their hard drives the games will work better, just like any program will….less head seeks to find the file!  I do ‘Observe” PC’s at homes where the PC is slow as can be because the files needed are in hundreds of places on the hard drive…they didn’t know about PC maintenance at all, or if the did they didn’t do it as often as they should.

I had posted the way I set up a PC and the detail I go through by always backing up and defraging before each install of some of the software that gets installed when I do a persons PC.   Then I was called paranoid for this.  So I came back and removed the part of the post of what I do.  Shgoh didn’t know why I really did all this extra work so he saw it as on the paranoid side.  The main reason I do the constant backups is that once I start I don’t ever want to have to start all over from the beginning if something should happen.  The reason for the frequent defrags is to keep the files in as a contiguous order as possible.

As I said above I removed all what I said on what I do when setting up a PC and only left the part about defraging.  I  removed it because I was looked at as being paranoid, it was kind of a jab at me, and hurt.  But he didn’t know the reason why I did these things.

The part of my post I did leave seems to have cause more of the poking at me, I should have removed it all or just tried to explain why I do things like I do.  Also the link I gave to the interview doesn’t work so try this one of these if you want to hear it.
http://www.techtalkradio.com/software/raxco.htm
http://www.techtalkradio.com/real/raxco.ram

PS: I can say I have learned some more lessons by all this.

J

[DavidR]

Hi Johanna,

Far from being paranoid, it is good common sence and good preventitive maintenence.

Anyone who doesn't have a backup/recovery strategy soon gets religion once they suffer their first system crash and can't get back into windows. If you don't have a plan then you plan to fail.

The loss of addressbook, emails, bookmarks, documents, images, music, program settings, tweaks, windows updates, hardware drivers, etc. etc. built up over months and years, really know what pain is! What cost an ounce of prevention compared with, fdisk, format, reinstall OS, programs, drivers (have you still got those old CDs, program keys, etc?) all from scratch. This kind of major loss is all the more likely when all your data is in the same partition as windows.

When your HDD is partitioned for efficiency and maintenance, defragmenting is much less of a hassle. I think it was RejZor who posted a link to download a small defrag program that goes like the wind by comparison to te default windows defragger. So it is even less of a chore and when done as a regular task even easier.

I usually do a weekly pc maintenance job (about an hour, hardly what I call being a slave), starting with deleting all internet and other temp files (if you want to kep something then it shouldn't be in temp), a boot virus scan, defrag my 2 HDDs before doing an image backup copy (of my C and D partitions on drive 1) saved onto my drive 2.

I also do a daily backup of volatile data, docs, OE .dbx files, addressbook, favourites, etc. (this takes about 30 seconds) using a small program called mirror.exe and a batch file I created.

Call me paranoid if you like, I don't give a stuff. I have a system that runs well and I have peace of mind, knowing I don't have to start from scratch should the worst happen.

I am sure that Shogh, was not making a personal comment, rather a general comment more related to his later post about, you rule the computer not the other way round.

Other people also took your point that it is beneficial and considering at the time of typing this there had been 462+ viewings of this thread and that was the only one that could be considered negative.

The removal of the information (thought paranoid ) will only be a loss good general advice for those coming behind.

David

[Johanna]

David,
I guess you are a little like I am as far a maintenance goes, except I run ‘Disk Cleanup & PerfectDisk every day…takes around 2 minutes.  Any new documents or changes in address book, favorites, etc. are backed up everyday with ViceVersa also less than 2 minutes.  I only make a backup if I want to install something new.

As far as the performance of my PC’s they fly, and I just don’t really run into problems.

It was how I go about setting up a PC at the beginning that looks like some kind of paranoia.  But I want to do a good job of it from the beginning, and have the PC run as best as it can.

I’m not at all mad at Shogh because I know I didn’t explain why I do what I do, just some of the things I do.  I regret not explaining why I do it the way I do, and also regret removing what I do from the post.

I’m the kind of person who likes to help people if I can,  and I sure appreciate it when others help me.

J

[bob3160]

Besides, Johanna if you delete this, it would louse up my favorites. This particular post has already been added under reference material. (Partitioning and Defrag Ref.)
Thanks for sharing your wealth of knowlegde.

[bob3160]

Johanna
I have just referred someone named Dollard to this post who needs help with True Image. and trans. an image to a new HD.
I hope you'll be able to help Dollard.
Thanks.