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Defrag98: Windows 98 Disk Defragmenter Simulator Online

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Re: Defrag98: Windows 98 Disk Defragmenter Simulator Online

#42

Post by andikleen2 »

alwa wrote: post #34
andikleen2 wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Such tools really exist and they're used for testing file systems, so that you have a more realistic "aged" layout on a freshly created test file systems. We also have memory fragmenters to do the same for memory for the same reasons.

Would those tools be primarily proprietary, or do some live in the open-source world too? I’d be interested in the techniques they use to aim for realism there. Admittedly I haven’t made much of a search, but various search engines and autocorrects seem really convinced that I mean “defragmenter” instead of “fragmenter,” despite myself…

It's usually custom scripts, I'm not aware of a standard tool. You fill up the file system and then do lots of operations that cause fragmentation.

Actually here is a recent paper discussing this (although the basic concept is much older):

https://arxiv.org/abs/2401.08858

Re: Defrag98: Windows 98 Disk Defragmenter Simulator Online

#45

Post by stoatstudios »

Perhaps it's appropriate for me to link to the free game I made where you play a taxi driving through Disk Defragmenter and delivering stray blocks of data to their final locations: https://safetystoatstudios.itch.io/ddr. It was pretty fun to watch Defragmenter as a kid, but it would have been better if it was interactive, kind of like the 3D maze screensaver.

Re: Defrag98: Windows 98 Disk Defragmenter Simulator Online

#46

Post by edoceo »

alwa wrote: post #34
andikleen2 wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Such tools really exist and they're used for testing file systems, so that you have a more realistic "aged" layout on a freshly created test file systems. We also have memory fragmenters to do the same for memory for the same reasons.

Would those tools be primarily proprietary, or do some live in the open-source world too? I’d be interested in the techniques they use to aim for realism there. Admittedly I haven’t made much of a search, but various search engines and autocorrects seem really convinced that I mean “defragmenter” instead of “fragmenter,” despite myself…

Arch Linux Wiki on stress testing: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Stress_testing

Re: Defrag98: Windows 98 Disk Defragmenter Simulator Online

#47

Post by pjot »

birdsongs wrote: post #38
stavros wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What, you don't need the data any more? Or are you conflating screen degaussing?

We used to degauss the CRTs because it looked cool and there was nothing else to do. Very adjacent to watching the defrag window maximised. I did it in computer lab and showed others and the teacher lost it, thought we were breaking things.

It also made a really satisfying “boyoyoyinnng” sound

Re: Defrag98: Windows 98 Disk Defragmenter Simulator Online

#48

Post by suprjami »

cosmic_cheese wrote: post #36

I recall there being some techno-mysticism surrounding defragging regarding how often and when it was necessary, what it did and didn’t help, etc. I also remember the claim “Macs don’t need defragging” but I don’t know if HFS(+) was actually any less prone to fragmentation than FAT32 was. Companies like Symantec were happy to sell defragging tools to Mac users regardless.

People used to say the same about Linux ext4, it didn't need defragmenting.

afaics all that meant was file allocations make a little extra space at the end, so if the file expands it doesn't need to allocate a new block.

If one keeps files around for a long time and constantly adds to them, then the files get fragmented on any filesystem.

The only way to avoid this is pre-allocate all files to their maximum possible size and never exceed that size.

Re: Defrag98: Windows 98 Disk Defragmenter Simulator Online

#49

Post by suprjami »

stoatstudios wrote: post #45

Perhaps it's appropriate for me to link to the free game I made where you play a taxi driving through Disk Defragmenter and delivering stray blocks of data to their final locations: https://safetystoatstudios.itch.io/ddr . It was pretty fun to watch Defragmenter as a kid, but it would have been better if it was interactive, kind of like the 3D maze screensaver.

AND you made it for Sega Genesis! That's so good.
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