[randall]

Just like our computer hard drives, won't we need to defrag our HDD recorders to recover full disc capacity? My Panny E100 manual makes reference to how "the disc's available recording time may not increase after erasing short programs," but then doesn't offer a solution. It could be said that the frequency of writes and rewrites to our HDDs will be much less than on our computers, but shouldn't we be able to maximize the long-term utility of these babies. I will be programming at least two recordings daily, so my HDD use will get up there eventually.

 

[Steve O]

Don't worry about it. The need to defrag is an artifact of Microsoft made file systems. Chances are they're using some Linux derivative or some home-grown code that handles the file systems in a way that doesn't need to be defragged.


-Steve

 

[vferrari]

Besides, defragging never recovers full disc capacity (because no disc capacity is lost with a fragmented drive), it only speeds up disc access because the drive head doesn't have to physically traverse all over the disc to obtain the file fragments.

 

[dsmith901]

Not a techie, but my understanding is that defragging does not delete files, it just rearranges their bits (fragments) to make them better organized and thus easier to access.


Dsmith

 

[JeffWld]

Quote:

Originally posted by Steve O Chances are they're using some Linux derivative or some home-grown code that handles the file systems in a way that doesn't need to be defragged. -Steve

The hackers who have attempted to analyze the Panasonic OS have indicated that your statement above is correct. It appears to be an offshoot of Unix crafted specifically for the Panasonic recorders.

 

[randall]

Thanks for the insights guys. By the way, the Mac OS also suffers from fragmentation, but the extent of the problem is also in debate.

 

[Cam73]

One way to "defrag" your drive is to empty it.


Assuming that this device can become fragmented (whether that matters is a different issue) if you regularly have nothing on your drive then as you add new shows there will be no fragmentation.


If you record a few shows a week and erase them when watched leaving the drive empty every now and then you wont have fragmentation problems.

 

[cf066]

Howdy,


I've sort of been thinking about this subject as well. I know that you can format a DVD-RAM disk, but can you reformat the HD? That certainly tends to clean things up. It can also often "fix" things when a HD acts up by mapping out the bad spots. If the Panasonics do use a unix-like OS, I'm wondering if it goes through the normal bootup operations and does a fsck.


Later,

-Chris

 

[vferrari]

Yes, formatting the HDD is a menu option in addition to erasing all programs.

 

[Boydness]

When You "Delete" Something, It Is Merely "Checking" The Bits To Indicate The Information In That Location Can Be Overwritten By The Write Head.


Basic: (Quick Explanation)

Hard Discs Are Arrange In Segments (In A Somewhat Circular Patern). When Information Is Written (Depending On The Length Of The File), It May Have To Skip An Area Were Info Was Previously Written("Saved"). These "Jumps" Slow The Read Head And Cause It To Have To Work Harder To Retrieve The Information. (DVD-RAM Work Under the Same Concept As Hard Drives, But Differently)


Defrag-ing Is An Attempt To Re-Align The Information In A More (Theorectically) Continuous Alignment. Thereby Reducing The Seek Time And Extending The Life of The Heads.


A Low Level Format Writes Zeros To The Drive, Indicating That All Areas May Be Overwritten.


As Unix Is A Small OS, It Could Possibly Be Stored Externally From the Hard Drive Or In A Partition (That You Are Not Capable Of Re-Formating)



(I Have Not Had A Need To Re-format My E80, And Doubt That I Will Unless Panasonic Comes Out With A Firmware Update Or Something...)