Ok to defrag second drive?

[zep]

Friends keep telling me not to defrag my second drive. The analysis says I should defrag it and this second drive is mounted internally (win xp system). This drive is what I backup my music and photos to, in addition to misc. files and documents.

Hoping somebody has some experience and can give me some advice on this.
Thanks!

 

[LookinAround]

Why in the world do they think you shouldn't defrag the second drive???

 

[zep]

They never seem to say why, but just sternly advise against it. Seems to be something to do with my using it as a backup drive I think, but that never makes sense since the data there either used to be on my main drive and/or still is. I of course have defragged the main drive so it would seem to me that the data on 2nd drive would be just as safe or at the same risk as my non-backup drive.
I dunno, their fears got to me a bit and so I have not yet defragged it as I of course don't want anything to happen to the data on it. I have seen here and there online people saying not to defrag a backup drive, but perhaps they are referring to a literal backup drive.
Either way, can anyone confirm for me whether it is ok or not and why?

 

[mailpup]

There would be no risk of losing data if you backed up your important files unless I misunderstood your post. If you are concerned about defragging, you should be concerned about many other ways you could lose data.

 

[zep]

Thanks. It's the drive my backed up files are stored in that needs defragging. Does this change your answer at all?
It sounds like it is ok to defrag my secondary internal drive that I use to backup data to. Right? just wanting to be clear.
thanks again.

 

[mailpup]

Defragging is okay for either of your hard drives. There is always some risk such as if you had a power failure right in the middle of it but since your files are backed up I wouldn't worry.

 

[zep]

Ok, sounds good. My one additional question now though is that I store my photos and music on this second drive exclusively since it saves space on my C drive. The only files that exist both on the C drive and the 2nd drive are my misc. files and documents.
Since the music and photo files cannot exist on both drives, and thus be true backups, should I not defrag the only drive they are stored on (2nd drive)?

Thank you for your help!

 

[fimbles]

You can defragment either drive when ever the system recomends it, Or whenever you feel like a good defrag! Whether you are just using the drive as "storage" or not.

I think your friends may be getting mixed up with enabling system restore on your external drive. which can sometimes cause problems.

 

[red1776]

I like to run chkdsk before i defrag, just to make sure there is no bad sectors, crosslinked files or other problems.

 

[LookinAround]

1) you said:

this second drive is mounted internally (win xp system).

Just to clarify some important points for certain:
>> These are TWO physically separate disk drives inside your computer, correct? Each with it's own partition
>> Or do you actually only have ONE internal disk drive that happens to have two partitions defined?
Your post isn't clear and there is a big difference between the two cases above!!

2)

Since the music and photo files cannot exist on both drives,

Why do you think they can't exist on two drives? That's the whole purpose of backups. (Note that means two physically different drives!! Not just different partitions on the same physical drive)

3) just fyi.. After you defrag your C: drive you might also run PageDefrag sometime. It defrags special Windows files that aren't defragged by normal Windows defraggers.

/* EDIT */
If you aren't certain if they're physically different drives you can open Device Manager and look under Disk Drives. You should see a different device name for EACH of your physical disk drives

 

[zep]

Yes, the drives are separate. The C drive is with my computer, the other drive is from an old computer that I added to this one for more space. There are no partitions.
I decided to keep my photos on the second drive as they take up so much space on my main drive and I run some larger programs for design work (photoshop etc.). So, I thought it best to make more room for my daily stuff to run more smoothly. Was this ignorant of me? If there are some better solutions to my set up and routine please let me know.

Thanks again for the help.

 

[mailpup]

There's nothing wrong with the way you are set up. However, you should make sure you have all of your important files safely duplicated (backed up) on a separate physical drive or storage medium. If some of your files are only on the second hard drive, then you are at risk of losing them if that hard drive should fail one day. You can use an external hard drive, a third internal hard drive, rewritable DVDs, flash drives or other methods to backup your valuable data.

 

[zep]

Thank you to all who posted. I feel better and am off to defrag my second drive.

 

[fimbles]

Defrag away! and direct your friends here if they have anything to say about it