Tivo>PC transfers create fragmented files

[Mammatus]

Frequently when I transfer tivo files to the PC or when I edit them in VideoReDo and create large (2-4GB) mpg files, the resulting files are fragmented and cannot be defraged (in disc defragmenter).

I think this may be the root cause of some of the problems I've been having in creating good .iso files and DVD burns that I've posted about in other threads.

Any ideas on how I can ensure a downloaded file or other large file does not become defragmented?

I've run the disc error check utility, turned off most other applications when transferring from Tivo, cleared over 1/2 of my harddrive space (over 40GB free), and defragged before beginning the transfers...

[dlfl]

I've never had the kind of problems you are having so can't suggest anything specific. I have less free disc space and don't defrag very often. What are your computer and HD specs?

In another thread you were having problems of bogging down anytime you did anything with a mpeg file. How did you resolve that?

[maggard]

Frequently when I transfer tivo files to the PC or when I edit them in VideoReDo and create large (2-4GB) mpg files, the resulting files are fragmented and cannot be defraged (in disc defragmenter).

I think this may be the root cause of some of the problems I’ve been having in creating good .iso files and DVD burns that I’ve posted about in other threads.
This is almost certainly not the problem, or if it is, you’ve got far worse issues going on.

The additional overhead of reading non-contiguous files off of your hard drive is so minor as to be almost ‘lost in the noise’ of other typical variations, background processes, etc. Yes a very (very) fragmented hard drive can possibly show a measurable slowdown, but even then it won’t be enough to interfere with other operations like DVD burning (all modern burning software incorporates multiple levels of cache & slowdowns just to avoid these sorts of issues.)

The truth is that drive defragmenters are hugely overrated by most folks; even on very heavily used systems a single monthly run is barely justifiable. It’s just not that hard for a modern drive to read several parts of a file, and when you consider they’re already large chunks, well the addt’l overhead is trivial.

I’m not available to be your support staff, but here are some things to look into (use Google to find more complete explanations):

Is your machine up to the job? Look up the specs of what is required by the software involved. I’m guessing they’re at least a very minimum of 500MHz PIII with 256MB RAM, and that is just scraping by and likely hitting bumps regularly. Ideally you’ll want 512MB RAM or more, and unless the machine is a complete junker it’s probably worth finding a stick on dealram.com or the like to make that happen.


Consider the state of Windows on your PC. It gets crufty over time. Most tech folks completely rebuild their Windows installs annually just to clear out the built up bit grime. If yours is a few years old, or has had a lot of software installed/tried out/uninstalled (or left hanging around), well your Windows OS is probably not the leanest internally. And if it was upgraded from a previous version of the OS, eeps! Perhaps time for the big cleanup...


Make sure your drive controllers have DMA set to active. This can have a huge effect on drive performance. Older versions of Windows defaulted to this off, current ones set it on, make sure it is on.


Most PCs have two built-in IDE buses, each capable of supporting two devices. The slower of the two devices sets the speed for the bus so putting like with like is best. A typical configuration would be with the HD on one bus and the CD/DVD on the other. Or if the PC has two CD/DVDs putting them both on the same bus and again, the comparatively faster/more vital/always-in-use HD on it’s own bus. If you’ve hardware you’re not using unplug it from the machine to see how it is affecting operations.


Your hard drive could be failing. Use a good tool, probably a free one from your hd manufacturer, to look up how many bad sectors your hard drive has. Read it’s SMART logs for a report on it’s stability. If SMART doesn’t show significant problems (there are always a few errors/incidents) try running with SMART off and seeing if it is somehow slowing down operations inordinately.


You might have other processes interfering with drive activity. If you’re just messing about with your own video files turn the virus checker off, it isn’t evaluating any new/dangerous files and so is just intrusive pointless overhead at the moment.


Same for firewalls & the like: Unplug from the ‘net and turn them off for a bit to lessen competing priorities on the machine. Also spooled-but-unprinted print jobs can be surprisingly large resource hogs, delete ‘em! As well some all-in-one printer driver toolkits are just bloat. Basically if you don’t need for this it turn it OFF.

Finally, not to be a quitter, but keep in mind you can find decent new PCs listed on dealnews.com and the like for $300. There’s a tradeoff between your time & frustration playing with a wonky PC and just getting a new one. You’ll then have a safe harbor to transfer your files over to and are then free to really muck about / rebuild / repurpose this one.

Good luck :)