Virtual Defrag

[Bozo]

When you defrag a Host system, does it defrag the 'Virtual' hard drive too? After all, it is just a file on the real hard drive.
On the flip side, is there any benefit to installing and running a defrag program on the virtual 'hard drive'?

I'm running Virtual PC 2007 and O&O Defrag.

Bozo :joker:

 

[P5-133XL]

The virtual HD, as a file will get defragged. But, that will not actually defrag the interior file structure of that file. So yes, there is a limited value of installing a defrag program into the virtual OS.

That being said, unless the fragmentation is really bad, I've not found that defragging makes much difference in performance on a NTFS file system. It is much more resiliant than FAT to the effects of fragmentation.

 

[sechs]

Just to add another layer of fragmentation, if you don't allocate your virtual disk in its entirety up front, you can end up with virtual fragmentation of the virtual disk, as well as actual fragmentation of the file(s) on the real disk and actual fragmentation of the virtual disk. VMware has a function to defragment this type of stuff; for the other types, you'll have use your favourite regular defragmentation tool.