GeoDisk and 137GB barrier?

[ananda6359]

i'm using msfn's version of esdi_506.pdr and it's fixed my 137gb barrier hdd problem, but i notice that people say not to use the ms defrag and scandisk, (or scandskw, not sure?) in thorough mode. does this fixed-137-gb-barrier prohibition extend to the updated winme defrag, scandisk, scandskw, &c? more to my current interest, does it extend to third-party defragmenters like geodisk? are there any scandisk-like freeware utilities that don't have issues with even the fixed 137gb barrier?

thanks

[Mijzelf]

While it seems to be the same limitation, the 137GB LBA limit has nothing to do with the Scandisk/Defrag limit. The LBA limit is caused by the use of a 28 bit sectoraddress, while the Scandisk/Defrag limit is caused by memory limitations of these (16 bit) tools, in combintation with bad design. Link. The WinME tools are don't have this problem. Well written 3th party software should not have this problem as well.

Edited May 24, 2007 by Mijzelf

[jaclaz]

Geodisk

Are you having a problem when you try to run Windows Defrag or Scandisk?

Download and install GEODisk 3©. This is the tool to solve your Scandisk and Defrag problems with Windows 98 and Windows ME. It has a new user interface to simplify the process for you. GEODisk 3© will check for processes that may be incomplete and recommend that you restart your system if any are found. You may then use the interface to select which tasks should be performed and the options available for each one. GEODisk 3© now allows you to select a single drive for Defrag and Scandisk in the event that you have more than 1 drive or partition on your system. The first step that GEODisk 3© performs is the removal of unnecessary files which you decide upon and select. It will then shutdown all tasks (except those required by Windows) which are running in the background (including TCP) before proceeding to run the Defrag and Scandisk programs.

When all of the selected tasks have been completed GEODisk 3© will then optionally restart or shutdown your system. It also has an all new 'Save Settings' feature which will allow you to continually use the same settings simply by placing a check in the 'Use Previous Settings' box.

appears more like an interface to standard Defrag/Scandisk than an actual "Third Party" defragger, so I guess that you need the ME version of the files anyway.

jaclaz

[Andromeda43]

Even though I run Winders XP-Pro, I still use a FAT-32 format on all my HD's.

So, you might say that I've got a handle on how to deal with very large FAT-32 hard drives.

Even though XP's Defrag does a credible job of defragging the drive, I prefer to go just a little bit better.

To get a fully compacted drive like we got in 98 and ME, I have developed my own way of defragging my HD's.

Here's my XP-Pro HD after I've "Defragged" it MY WAY.

You may well ask, "How did you do that in XP?".

Well, XP really had nothing to do with it.

What I did was make a Ghost 2003 backup image of C: and then verify the backup and then do an immediate RESTORE of the Ghost backup file. Everything is re-written to C: in the same perfect order that it was entered into the Ghost Image.

I boot up my PC in DOS from either a boot floppy or boot CD, and run several batch files to remove the Pagefile.sys and all temp files, etc., before running Ghost. That decreases my file load in my Ghost backup file by almost 2 gigabytes.

I'm still getting my entire Ghost Image of C: on just one DVD.

It don't get much better'n that!

Cheers!

B)

[eidenk]

Pure madness.

[RJARRRPCGP]

But, Windows XP will prohibit defragmenting directories with FAT32!

Thus, there's still fragmented directories!

Apparently, the defrag utility that comes with Windows XP will hide directories.

Microsoft did this for the purpose of trying to force people to use NTFS.

Edited May 28, 2007 by RJARRRPCGP

[BenoitRen]

Not to mention that defragmenting on XP takes forever.