Defragging the DB

[meatybtz]

Its the recommended way to improve game performance. However, many of you I am pretty sure use the default non-3d party windows defragmenter. It does not defragment "large" files well... when it does so at all. So even if you set your system to automatically defragment on a regular basis chances are your AO DB is fragmented to hell still.

Checking mine revealed it was in 298 fragments. That murders performance. If you dont want to go third party for you defragmenting tools there is a windows API tool that is available via technet:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/s.../bb897428.aspx

for ease you can just set it to run now and then. Esp after a patch blows your AO DB all over your harddisk.
My Output as an example below:

C:\Anarchy\cd_image\data\db>contig -v ResourceDatabase.dat

Contig v1.55 - Makes files contiguous
Copyright (C) 1998-2007 Mark Russinovich
Sysinternals - www.sysinternals.com

------------------------
Processing C:\Anarchy\cd_image\data\db\ResourceDatabase.dat:
Scanning file...
Scanning disk...
File is 468433 physical clusters in length.
File is in 298 fragments.

Moving 229672 clusters at file offset cluster 0 to disk cluster 7963478
Moving 229133 clusters at file offset cluster 229672 to disk cluster 6804345
Moving 9628 clusters at file offset cluster 458805 to disk cluster 5985416
File size: 1918697546 bytes
Fragments before: 298
Fragments after : 3
------------------------
Summary:
Number of files processed : 1
Number of files defragmented: 1
Average fragmentation before: 298 frags/file
Average fragmentation after : 3 frags/file

Not bad. After Running Contig amazingly windows defragmenter will now clean up and compact the DB and the rest of the files nominally. It just seems to be a limitation in the XP defragmenter. I have yet to verify this with contig on my Vista box.. but I am willing to bet its the same issue, once a large file is in too many fragments it gets flagged as undefragmentable and you need contig to get it into shape. Or you could spend money on a third party program.

[Solssss]

so how do u use it

nvm found out

wtf.. lol
Scanning file...
Scanning disk...
File is 468335 physical clust
File is in 1409 fragments.

[Comi]

Mind fixing your link ?

[IHaveHugeNick]

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/s.../bb897428.aspx

[meatybtz]

thanks nick,
I also fixed my broken link.

I think some of you are going to be surprised at your DBs fragmentation. It all adds up to lots of extra disk thrashing and slower loads and lag.

Also with all technet articals you can search by the artical number at technet.microsoft.com..

Also post your verbose here
I kind of want to see the results of peoples DBs.

[Phargus]

Why the hell didn't you post this before I went and bought an SSD?

[meatybtz]

Hehe, well its your money.....


Anyways you have an SSD.. this is for us normal SATA users

Ideally SSD will still be even better than a defragmented DB on a sata disk (seektimes are still seek times) but I think this will really help some of the people who are having significant performance degredation.

[Comi]

My db wasnt fragmented at all, I do regular defrags with windows defrag, guess it aint that bad.

[meatybtz]

Pure luck..

usually though once windows defrags it once it can maintain it.. as long as it doesnt get too bad.

[CriticalDmg]

Originally Posted by Phargus Why the hell didn't you post this before I went and bought an SSD?

Defragmenting doesn't come anywhere close to the benefit you get from a SSD, even if you had the entire AO DB fragmented over 10k fragments on the SSD - it'll still work waaaaaaaaay faster then a 1 fragment chunk on a regular HD.
While it is part of a good PC maintenance, you will most likely never see the benefit of doing so (unless you got yourself a drive that's never been defraged since years ago ).

[Kaitlain]

Instructions for people like me:


1) Download the .zip

2) Unzip the contig file in your Anarchy Online \ Cd_image \ data \ db directory

3) Go to start, select Run

4) Type cmd and press enter

5) Type cd\ (this moves you to the base directory)

6) [This is for a standard install] type:

cd prog*.*
cd Funcom
cd An*.*
cd cd*.*
cd data
cd db

Then type

contig -v ResourceDatabase.dat


And see the results. I had 468335 clusters in 2906 fragments.

[Phargus]

Put the contig utility in the same folder as the db and try again...

[Kaitlain]

Originally Posted by Phargus Put the contig utility in the same folder as the db and try again...

See edit above

[meatybtz]

you can use it from any directory but then you have to path the file so that would be
contig c:\anarchy\cd_image... etc.

Since this is really the only massive monolithic file I deal with I just plopped it there.

For those of you on Vista it appears that MS fixed whatever was lacking in the defragmenter utillity and yes Vistas built in tool handles large files w/o issue. So no need for contig on Vista.. and I suspect Windows 7 for those using it. For WinXP defintly needed tool.

[Comi]

Im on xp, but i didnt mention its a brand new drive with a fresh install tho.

[meatybtz]

Originally Posted by Comi Im on xp, but i didnt mention its a brand new drive with a fresh install tho.

That would help. What I have noticed is patching over time increases db fragmentation... esp on a fragmented harddisk.

If you harddisk is defragemented before install chances are the DB will be less fragmented and XPs built in defragger will clean it up and it will stay so. If your drive is full of fragmented files then when patching the DB it will fragment it all over the place in one hell of a mess looking for free space to use.

Defragmented disk + new install of AO == healthy DB fragmentation (can be maintained without contig)
Fragmented disk with old AO installation + major patch == unhealthy DB fragmentation (cannot be maintained without contig and a proper drive defragment)

Thats pretty straight forward. Defintly not rocket-science. Seeing the high fragmentation rates of some of the people on here shows me that alot of people dont run scheduled defrags (weekly) and so the chances of their DB being blown to bits is high.

You should always defrag your drive before running contig to ensure you have a large block of contiguious space on the disk for contig to use.

I noted a marked increase in performance on my laptop running XP after defragging, compacting, and contiging the db. That is AO performance. For people with thousands of fragments of the DB I cant even imagine how bad your AO performance is.

[Stick]

Scanning file...
Scanning disk...
File is 468535 physical clusters in length
File is in 2 fragments

[freqflyerdent]

heheheh ok odd, this is what i got...

Contig v1.55 - Makes files contiguous
Copyright (C) 1998-2007 Mark Russinovich
Sysinternals - www.sysinternals.com

------------------------
Processing C:\Stuff\AO\cd_image\data\db\ResourceDatabase.dat:
Scanning file...
C:\Stuff\AO\cd_image\data\db\ResourceDatabase.dat is already in 1 fragment.
------------------------
Summary:
     Number of files processed   : 1
     Number of files defragmented: 0
     All files were either already defragmented or unable to be defragmented.

and no i didnt run it and run it again.

[meatybtz]

Looks like you keep good care of your computer?

[freqflyerdent]

Originally Posted by meatybtz Looks like you keep good care of your computer?

That would depend on your perspective/point of view/or some such.

The way I see it is, I screw with, play with and f*** with as many things as possible on my machine at home. ie I am reckless.

But I do run Defraggler from Piriform once a month, more paranoia than anything else. Even if I get a report of "5% fragmented not needed yadda yadda yadda" I still do it hehehe.

Just as an aside, that AO folder is as old as how long i've been playing AO, which is around almost 4 years... heh.