Adding padding files to the operating system and startup

[loninappleton]

This is just an idea that I had from seeing the term 'padding' files.

Is it possible to get more life out of the constantly used tracks of the operating system with padding files?

If some unrelated fairly large file is put into an XP folder (or more than one in various places) would this change the look up locations when the OS is started up by the HD?

It's true I'm a novice here and don't know why drives fail. But churning the location of the operating system files seemed like a logical notion.

In a related manner, would doing such a spoof change the SMART reading in a program like CrystalDiskInfo? A while back I saw a an HD of mine go from Fair to Good after some maintenance routines were run such as System File Checker.

[HaQue]

Hi,
What you are talking about very closely resembles "Wear levelling" used on NAND Flash memory(such as in USB Flash drives).

The main way you control how data is stored on a HDD is by defrag. Unless you knew which tracks the data was on that was "very used" IMHO it would be very difficult to manage what you are talking about. You would probably need to write a wear levelling driver for your disk and use it from day one.

IMHO a much better option would be to have a good backup system, so that any data crash will not matter, and watch your HDD for any change in SMART Values, or I/O errors in the event log.

If your files are fragmented, meaning parts of the file are stored in non-contigous blocks, the Heads have to move around locating the full file. After a defrag, the file would mostly be in a, well, "straight line of blocks" and the heads just keep reading one after the other.

Think of laying 10 lego blocks of blue and 10 blocks of red and 10 yellow out on a table. mix them up and then go pickup all the red. now lay them 10 red, 10 blu, 10 yellow and pick them up.. see the performance gain?

The "maintenance" is done on the filesystem, IE the bits of sata, not the actual physical disk itself.

I hope all that makes sense.

[loninappleton]

I have used what I thought was a good defragger from IOBit but as I recall some problems developed around that time of use. I have since not done any defragging. How it introduced errors I have no idea. Or maybe it was coincidence.



And yes I do regular or nearly regular backup. What free products at HDDGuru are recommended for this?