Defragmenting disks under Linux

[jludwig]

On Tue, 2004-04-06 at 17:30, M3 Freak wrote:
> On Tue, 2004-04-06 at 16:30, Chris Jones wrote:
> > As a long-time user of various Windoze "distro's" (from win3.11 all the
> > way to Win2k), I have come to recognise that one needs to regularly
> > de-frag hard-disks under windoze. 
> > 
> > My question is:-
> > Is linux susceptible to fragmentation?
> > 
> > If so, then what tool is best to cure it, and keep it cured?
> 
> You'll find that Linux filesystems don't fragment anywhere near as much
> as the Windows filesystems.  Case in point: my crappy little Dell XPS
> M200s is 1.5% fragmented, and it's on 24x7 (since it's my multimedia,
> network storage and print server).  My laptop's boot and root partitions
> (simple, default partition setup) are 0% and 2% fragmented.  It's been
> running RH9 and was recently upgraded to FC1.
> 
> If things do get out of hand in some way and your filesystems do start
> to fragment more than, say, 10%, you can simply copy everything out of
> the affected filesystem, and copy the data back.  That should eliminate
> the fragmentation.
> 
> However, I think you'll find fragmentation is going to be non-existent.
> 
> HTH,
> 
> Kanwar
> Systems Aligned Inc.
> www.systemsaligned.com
You know what? It's been so long since I even thought of de-fragging 
under Linux, that I have even forgotten how to check for it.
-- 
jludwig <wralphie at comcast.net>