I used to watch defrag (and defraggler). If you have OCD they are very satisfying to watch. The more fragmented they were to start with, the better.
Defrag98: Windows 98 Disk Defragmenter Simulator Online
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Re: Defrag98: Windows 98 Disk Defragmenter Simulator Online
#52I love this. However, Amiga’s Reorg program had a vastly better display, with a larger, resizable window and individual pixels instead of large boxes. You could see much more of the disk at once and get a feel for what the entire operation was doing. Large holes would appear in the middle of a hunk of data, then large files would get moved into the hole, leaving new holes where their incontiguous blocks use to be. Defrag was nice. Reorg was captivating. I miss it.
Re: Defrag98: Windows 98 Disk Defragmenter Simulator Online
#53There's something satisfying about defragging that has been lost to time. Like oiling a squeaky engine
I agree. It may sound elitist but back then you need to understand a few concepts to use a computer. From simple things like a filesystem (folders, file, different file types, things my 19 years old nephew don't know), to how to install software, how to download software (!) and then things even a bit more technical: an operative system, how it works, booting, drivers, etc.
Now everything is just easier (which is better for most people!) but I miss the old days.
Re: Defrag98: Windows 98 Disk Defragmenter Simulator Online
#54There's something satisfying about defragging that has been lost to time. Like oiling a squeaky engine
Degaussing too.
I was going to comment this same thing until I saw yours. I miss degaussing... Especially after holding a magnet to the CRT to get it to display fun colors it wasn't meant to and crossing your fingers that the degauss would fix the damage you'd wrought.
Re: Defrag98: Windows 98 Disk Defragmenter Simulator Online
#55There's something satisfying about defragging that has been lost to time. Like oiling a squeaky engine
I agree. It may sound elitist but back then you need to understand a few concepts to use a computer. From simple things like a filesystem (folders, file, different file types, things my 19 years old nephew don't know), to how to install software, how to download software (!) and then things even a bit more technical: an operative system, how it works, booting, drivers, etc. Now everything is just easier (which is bet…
I've said the same thing about using Linux.
20 years ago if somebody told you they used Linux it really meant something - they weren't running WSL, they weren't running a VM in EC2, they probably didn't power on and immediately have things working, and they probably learned a ton just getting to a login screen for the first time. Spinning up a VM just doesn't give the same learning experience.
Re: Defrag98: Windows 98 Disk Defragmenter Simulator Online
#56When I was younger, my friends and I joked about making a "Disk Fragmenter" which would enumerate through every file on the disk and split them into non-contiguous clusters to make sure that the actuator arm on your platter-drive gets a PROPER WORKOUT TO FEEL THE BURN.
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.
This makes me wonder at the absurdity (yet plausible implementation??!?!) of a tool to test something like ZFS filesystem limits, as they are quite gargantuan in many possible measures.
Re: Defrag98: Windows 98 Disk Defragmenter Simulator Online
#57There's something satisfying about defragging that has been lost to time. Like oiling a squeaky engine
That and many desktop PCs making a kind of grinding noise from the floppy drive on start up, along with the bios "BEEP", as the default boot order option was to seek booting from A: (and possibly B:) floppy drives before the hard drive.
Re: Defrag98: Windows 98 Disk Defragmenter Simulator Online
#58Maybe my memory is bad, but I recall defrag taking hours to complete.
Re: Defrag98: Windows 98 Disk Defragmenter Simulator Online
#59There's something satisfying about defragging that has been lost to time. Like oiling a squeaky engine
Degaussing too.
I once worked with a gigantic Apple (Sony, really) monitor on my desk. Every time I turned it on, it degaussed the monitors nearby.
So many of us spent so much time staring at the barrel of a particle accelerator.
Re: Defrag98: Windows 98 Disk Defragmenter Simulator Online
#60I wish ext4, BtrFS, and XFS had something like this.