ok... that title may have been a bit confusing but if you are reading this then i got your attention didn't i
What I'm referring to is WinMX's habit of severely fragmenting the files it downloads... esp if you are running low on space or are downloading many files at the same time..... Its basically the same effect as downloading a torrent without allocating the filespace first... but in my experence (which does
not make it an absolute) it seems to be worse...
On to the fix;
Use a Flash USB thumb drive or old card-in-a-cardreader... as your 'download' directory/drive.... It is
highly recommended to reformat the drive to the filesystem used by your native OS -- NTFS for windows, ext2/3 or even YAFFS (acronym) for linux, etc... this will allow for greater file recovery in the rare event the flash drive fubars a file....
defragmenting the flash drive is not needed.... in fact its not even recommended (its a waste of time)... the occasional rare checkup with chkdsk /f or fsck tho is recommended to keep the filesystem itself healthy.....
so how does this help with fragmentation? the seek times on a flash drive are the same regardless of how fragmented a file is (no moving parts) and the flash drive is only for the
initial download of a file.... and thats the trick... when you move your finished but fragmented download from the flash drive to its 'permanent' home on your harddrive your OS will do its best to keep the file from fragmenting... and since the entire file is there... theres a good chance it wont.... fragmentation problem fixed
Another method would be to use an old but
trustworthy harddrive (with a capacity of around 2 to 8+ gigs) ... you know... that harddrive that you seem to have had around forever that refuses to die?.... yeah... that one... if you dont trust the use of a flash drive use that old HDD.... things will be a little noisier and transfering the fragmented file off the drive will be slower but if you use the same 'move the finished file to a different drive' method above you will have a nice contiguous share directory that doesnt put unneeeded stress on your expensive high-capacity drives and unwanted extra noise in your computer room...
Yes i know theres the argument "why not just run disk defragmenter?" ....you could... but this is a
preventative measure.... catch the fragmentation before so defragmenters wont have to work as hard after (if that makes sense)
enjoy...
