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Copy contents from drive 1 to (new) drive 2 = defrag?


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I've connected (slaved) a 750 gb sata drive (single FAT32 volume, 80% full) to PC's running XP and 7 and have used Window's native defrag as well as trial version of O&O defrag and let the defrag process go for up to 4, 5 days straight and still the process doesn't seem to be over.

So here's what I want to know:  If I copy files from what could be a slightly fragged or very fragged FAT32 drive to a brand-new, newly-formatted SATA FAT32 drive, will the files be placed on the new drive in an "un-fragged" manner, or will the placement of the files somehow aquire some degree of fragmentation by nature of how windows (XP or 7) moves/copies files between drives?

 

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I'm wondering if XP/7 performs multiple simultaneous file-copying instead of single, linear copying and the end result (for a FAT32 file system) would still be a fragmented file system on the target drive.  This could also be a function of file caching, sata drivers maybe?  I'm wondering this because XP/7 seem to have a hell of a time hammering away at this source drive, trying to defrag it, after so much time.  

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And in any case you can use xcopy (actually XCOPY32).

SERVe Kentucky Fried Chicken Hot! :yes:

http://www.duxcw.com/digest/Howto/hd/cpyhd/cpyhd2.htm

The issue with the above may be what happens in case of errors, hence a more suitable little tool is ycopy:

https://web.archive.org/web/20080731175052/http://www.ruahine.com:80/ycopy-file-copy-utility.html

http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/System-Miscellaneous/Ycopy.shtml

 

jaclaz

 

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  • 5 weeks later...

There would be no performance advantage to simultaneous copying so I doubt anyone would try to do so.

The main disadvantage is that you might not benefit from layout optimizations that some defragmenters provide.

Also System files will be moved potentially breaking some old Copy Protection schemes.

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