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[_r.u.s.s.]

a good defragmenter takes care of everything. and the most recetn data, including registries would be on the outside hdd tracks.. you don't need any 'registry defrag' if you have a good defragmenting tool

[D4NG3R]

Originally Posted by Juanca

I am planning to do some backup of my personal stuff. I have a load of pictures, music (mostly mp3 files), games (:amused, docs etc....
I have already done backups in the past but never tried compressing them.
So here are my questions, please enlighten me:cheesy:,

What is the best file extension to do this? I read 7zip is the best for compressing. but what about .zip, .rar, etc?
should i separate types of files and make three or four different files (I mean one for only pictures, one with only documents, etc?
Is there a limit for compressing info in one file (limit of megs or number of files?
Is there any risk of loosing some info on the compression process and after decompressing not finding some data? (urban legend?)

Is this useful? or just if you have the means to burn a bunch of dvds with uncompressed data it is far better.

Im back-upping my pc atm im using my trusty old winrar
Works perfectly (it calculated how mutch smaller it will go:
423.21gb -> 292.211gb )
Takes about an hour'n a half, (special usb port, instead of normal 500mb sec (usb 2.0) i have one that goes 1.1gb a sec (sometimes called 2.5 but it isnt), its just a better usb port/software )

[Japo]

For system files there's PageDefrag:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/s.../bb897426.aspx

It's supposed to take care of some files that are open for exclusive access during Windows operation and so can't supposedly be defragmented. When started it tells you how many fragments these are broken into. If you then choose to defrag them it will do so at the following computer start when Windows hasn't opened them yet.

However JkDefrag for one does defragment all those files all right during normal Windows operation, so I've never used PageDefrag to defragment, just to check that these files aren't fragmented. I don't think JkDefrag is the only that can do this since it's based on Microsoft's APIs--I wouldn't use it if it wasn't--, but at least you can run PageDefrag to check these system files. Should they get fragmented, performance would go down the drain.

By the way to discriminate which files to defrag instead of the whole disc, I use Contig:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/s.../bb897428.aspx

[Juanca]

Great, all this info. All this makes me wonder what are your best system tools combination?

Until today i was only working with

Easy cleaner 2.0
and windows defragment tool
(but i will change to the ones suggested)

anything else?
what is your best system tools combination, and how frequently do you run this programs?

[The Fifth Horseman]

you don't need any 'registry defrag' if you have a good defragmenting tool

Defragmenting the HDD contents doesn't have much to do with defragmenting the contents of registry hives.
First use CCleaner, then RegCompact.NET.

A clean and defragmented system registry gives a slight increase of Windows startup speed.

[_r.u.s.s.]

Defragmenting the HDD contents doesn't have much to do with defragmenting the contents of registry hives.

no it does,

registry "hives" are not on spread on different sections of special physical drives or something (not every os needs to have windows registries you know...), they are, for example system32\config\sam, system32\config\system, Documents and Settings\NetworkService\ntuser.dat, etc

therefore using separate registry defragmenter and file defragmenter would be useless, if you use proper defragmenting tools, for example like ultimate defrage, which puts the most used and recent files and/or system files (it has shitloads of options, you can organise your HDD as you just wish) in to the outer tracks for faster system performance, and defragments them of course..

[Japo]

Originally Posted by Juanca

Great, all this info. All this makes me wonder what are your best system tools combination?

Until today i was only working with

Easy cleaner 2.0
and windows defragment tool
(but i will change to the ones suggested)

anything else?
what is your best system tools combination, and how frequently do you run this programs?

I used EasyCleaner, but now use CCleaner instead. It's more thorough while being completely safe, and also cleans junk files. RegSeeker also comes highly recommended and is more aggressive.

[bobson]

Does any of these programs to defrag disk and system works well on Vista? I noticed that probably every operation made on system disk needs administrator acknowlegment (I copy, delete via Total Commander) and a question "Are You Sure" from the system

[dosraider]

I know Auslogics works fine, I use it on my Vista HDs (32 and 64).
I think most of the others mentioned will also work fine in Vista.