Couldn't find a thread on this subject, so maybe it's not a big concern. I have been using EAC / Lame and pointed EAC to the final drive where the MP3's would reside. After a few CD's, I took a look at how bad the drive was fragmented. I couldn't believe my eyes, it was totally fragmented. I don't think there was a single file intact. I changed EAC and pointed the files to a different drive. Once a CD was finished, I copied the MP3's to the drive I wanted to store them in. This took care of the defrag problem much better than the windows utility to defrag the drive. Has anyone else seen this problem, and do you think it is a problem? I know that my PC hardware can keep up with an MP3 stream no matter how fragmented it is, but logic tells me an organized drive will last longer and work better than a fragmented drive. Cheers.
Whenever you use a PC, the way the OS works is sort of like a library using the Dewey system. Trouble is it never puts things back where it found them, but instead uses the first space large enough that it finds. The pointers get updated, but it slows everything down enormously. Defragging is like putting everything back in the proper place, and should be done on a regular basis.
I realize I didn't explain my concern very well. I understand how files are written to the hard drive, etc. I was surprised how fragmented an MP3 becomes when written to the hard drive as it is being created from a wav file. I would expect most other users of EAC had discovered the same thing and had taken precautions to prevent fragmented MP3's. The point I failed to make in my initial post was that I would expect at some point the fragmentation would affect sound quality. I visualize the heads flying all over the drive platters to read the MP3 file trying to keep up with the MP3 player requesting the data. I think the 8 meg cache on the hard drive is only for recuring reads of the same data on the hard drive and not used as a look ahead buffer, but I could be wrong. As much attention and detail that has been spent on getting the best sounding MP3 files possible (or desired), it seems that a fragmented file could hinder sound quality at some point. (However, I stated earlier that I expected the PC hardware to keep up with the MP3 stream. Not so sure which is actually true.) I will take steps to keep my MP3's defraged and contiguous. Am I taking this matter too seriously, or should I relax and just enjoy the music?
Keep DeFraggin' Your PC will love you more for it, and yes - it will perform much better. The heads on the HDD just don't have to jump around quite so much. Badly fragged drives will lead to clicks/pops/dropouts eventually.
Thanks wilkes for the timely responces. Don't know how many others have checked their drives for fragmented files. I keep my MP3's on seperate drive, so I know everything I saw was an MP3. It was the worst fragmentation I had ever seen. Fortunately, I discovered it before it got out of hand.
