Disk Defragmentation

[DaBears]

Maybe someone can help me understand something about the game, really two issues.

1 - I notice that my disk goes from 0% fragmented to 2-4% after just a day or so. If I wait a few days, it is 9-12% fragmented. Run defrag, rinse, repeat. Happens over and over.

2 - I have two machines with the game. One has 6 RAM and the other 2 RAM. The above scenario is on the 6 RAM. It appears I may have blown the drive up on the 2 RAM. Of note, the only programs I run on these two computers are OOTP 17 and an Excel sheet with some game data.

So, the question is if I have set this up the wrong way at all. From what I read, Markus says the game doesn't actually use much memory anymore but that may only be for online leagues(?). I'm obviously not techie so would simply appreciate any comments.

Thanks!

[Lukas Berger]

I have a longer answer if you need it but 1. sounds perfectly normal, that's just how hard drives work.

In regard to 2. more data might help as to what exactly makes you think something "blew up" on the second machine?

Overall, if you're really only using OOTP, Excel and the Internet on a machine, it's beyond unlikely that you did anything wrong in the setup to the point where it could cause any damage.

The worst case scenario would basically be that you simply installed OOTP incorrectly and that it couldn't run as a result but everything else on the PC would be fine. It wouldn't damage your hard drive or memory though, not matter how incorrectly you installed it.

So if you're having issues with your drive or your memory, it's likely not something you did wrong, it's likely just natural wear and tear taking effect or possibly an issue with a virus.

You might want to check with a PC repairman in your area if you keep having issues, or if you describe the problem in more detail here, perhaps someone could give you some more specific advice with more info

[NoOne]

if the mechanical drive was nearing 30k hours, that's when they typically start to show their age. they can go bad sooner, but not often.

look for a free diskinfo like crystal diskinfo or w/e it's called. if the drive is SMART enabled, it will report various errors why it's not working correctly.

if it's a laptop by chance, any type of shock it takes can potentially damage a mechanical drive.

if buying a new one, either way, get a SSD. if money consience do a little research and you can likely find an inexpensive one that performs fairly well comapred to the top-of-the-line models.

get 2 and setup a raid 1 array (?vocab?) i think... super fast and data redundancy makes it even more unlikely to lose a bit.

ssd - never worry about fragmentation again. it is actually purposefully fragmented to even out wear-and-tear. no moving parts, so mostly not a problem.

about defrag: it's just a file related to ootp, so it won't slow system down one bit, but it likely helps with backup/save times. maybe every year or 2 in game and then defrag?

[DaBears]

Thank you both for the information. As I said, I am not a techie so you'll have to forgive me for simplistic answers. Your answer as well as the one below it make me realize there are likely two questions I am asking, totally unrelated. One, is a drive becoming more and more fragmented necessarily a bad thing, and two, is 2MB RAM enough on a machine to run OOTP and Windows 10 without causing issues?

Several things:
1. I did the default install and the game does seem to work well (other than my little 3D dudes running all over the place chasing balls that are in 20 rows up in the stands while the other team's little 3D dudes keep running around the bases!). I do not believe there is an issue with the game installation, so can likely set that aside.

2. On the "blew up" issue, not sure if that's the right term or not. The hard drive stopped working on a two-month old computer. Second time that has happened. I wondered if the low RAM was the cause as someone who does know a bit more than I do about computers mentioned it takes about 1 RAM to run the Windows system so if OOTP also requires 1 RAM, it was stretching the system. Not blaming OOTP, just curious if that computer does not have the oomph to run the game on it. I like that laptop as it weighs less than 3lbs and is easy to carry on planes. Just sent the laptop back to Lenovo and they replaced it, which is good, but would prefer not to ruin it if I'm trying to run too big a program.

3. My other, main, laptop is an HP with "AMD A-10-9600P RADEON R5, 10 COMPUTE CORES 4C+6G 2.40 Ghz. It has 6.00 GB RAM (5.59 useable), 64-bit operating system, x64-based processor". I know nothing of what that means but you asked for specifics and maybe that will help. The game is working fine on it and the computer has done fine (only a month old), so the main question there is whether I need to defrag or just let it be.

One tech question: Does fragmentation every stop? It seems to just keep going up, and it would seem like that is bad at some point. Maybe not.

Thank you both for your insights!

[DaBears]

Originally Posted by NoOne

if the mechanical drive was nearing 30k hours, that's when they typically start to show their age. they can go bad sooner, but not often.

look for a free diskinfo like crystal diskinfo or w/e it's called. if the drive is SMART enabled, it will report various errors why it's not working correctly.

if it's a laptop by chance, any type of shock it takes can potentially damage a mechanical drive.

if buying a new one, either way, get a SSD. if money consience do a little research and you can likely find an inexpensive one that performs fairly well comapred to the top-of-the-line models.

get 2 and setup a raid 1 array (?vocab?) i think... super fast and data redundancy makes it even more unlikely to lose a bit.

ssd - never worry about fragmentation again. it is actually purposefully fragmented to even out wear-and-tear. no moving parts, so mostly not a problem.

about defrag: it's just a file related to ootp, so it won't slow system down one bit, but it likely helps with backup/save times. maybe every year or 2 in game and then defrag?

Thank you for the information. FYI, both machines are very new, as in less than four months. Unfortunately, I did already buy two new laptops so am likely not going to buy another one with SSD anytime soon.

On the defrag issue, am I actually hurting the machine by running defrag every few days???

[Augetout]

Originally Posted by DaBears

Thank you both for the information. As I said, I am not a techie so you'll have to forgive me for simplistic answers. Your answer as well as the one below it make me realize there are likely two questions I am asking, totally unrelated. One, is a drive becoming more and more fragmented necessarily a bad thing, and two, is 2MB RAM enough on a machine to run OOTP and Windows 10 without causing issues?

Several things:
1. I did the default install and the game does seem to work well (other than my little 3D dudes running all over the place chasing balls that are in 20 rows up in the stands while the other team's little 3D dudes keep running around the bases!). I do not believe there is an issue with the game installation, so can likely set that aside.

2. On the "blew up" issue, not sure if that's the right term or not. The hard drive stopped working on a two-month old computer. Second time that has happened. I wondered if the low RAM was the cause as someone who does know a bit more than I do about computers mentioned it takes about 1 RAM to run the Windows system so if OOTP also requires 1 RAM, it was stretching the system. Not blaming OOTP, just curious if that computer does not have the oomph to run the game on it. I like that laptop as it weighs less than 3lbs and is easy to carry on planes. Just sent the laptop back to Lenovo and they replaced it, which is good, but would prefer not to ruin it if I'm trying to run too big a program.

3. My other, main, laptop is an HP with "AMD A-10-9600P RADEON R5, 10 COMPUTE CORES 4C+6G 2.40 Ghz. It has 6.00 GB RAM (5.59 useable), 64-bit operating system, x64-based processor". I know nothing of what that means but you asked for specifics and maybe that will help. The game is working fine on it and the computer has done fine (only a month old), so the main question there is whether I need to defrag or just let it be.

One tech question: Does fragmentation every stop? It seems to just keep going up, and it would seem like that is bad at some point. Maybe not.

Thank you both for your insights!

First, performance can suffer if/when a hard drive becomes 'too' fragmented. Running a disk defrag once a week should eliminate the issue, and will not hurt your machine.

Second, 2 gig of RAM running Windows and another program that requires a gig should be ok----remember, part of your Hard Drive was probably set up/reserved to act as RAM, thus you probably won't suffer a thing by not upgrading the amount of RAM.

To address your 'some things': 1---you are correct

2. again, the RAM issue is probably a non-issue. Odds are the Hard Drive was faulty to begin with. OOTP (in my opinion) is not taxing on today's PCs or laptops----the worries come once one starts playing graphically-intense games, which OOTP is not. The simple math being done in the background is not a significant drain on resources, unless there are significant coding issues which doesn't seem to be likely.

3. Disk Defrags can be set up to run automatically, and running one once in awhile is a good idea. Given that you are seeing significant defragmentation in relatively short periods of time, I would advise running one once a week.

Hope this helps.

[DaBears]

Thank you for your help. Very helpful.