Xbox HDD Maint. question.

[fallenleader]

I have been moving files all around on my xbox hdd via. ftp.
I use unleashx and have been wondering.

Is the xbox hdd like most hdd's, where as it gets all fragmented and such? and would it benefit from, if at all possible, defragmenting?

Other than that, I was thinking, with my limited knowledge, can't the hdd be plugged into a computer as a secondary slave drive, then run the pc and choose the "extra" drive in the defrag menu "in win xp"

I know little about this, but i do keep a full dvd backup of my xbx hdd.

[ForrrestMaster]

Quote: Originally Posted by fallenleader

Is the xbox hdd like most hdd's, where as it gets all fragmented and such? and would it benefit from, if at all possible, defragmenting?

I have never really thought about it. But there are no programs that you can use that I know of.

Quote: Originally Posted by fallenleader

Other than that, I was thinking, with my limited knowledge, can't the hdd be plugged into a computer as a secondary slave drive, then run the pc and choose the "extra" drive in the defrag menu "in win xp"

I dunno. I would NOT recommend you do it. I will go home and try it after school. If I **** up my HDD, I can fix it in a few easy steps becasue I do it all the time. I will post my results later.

[fallenleader]

well, no such thing as a stupid question. is such thin as stupid people, so just consider it a pure idea.
MY thought is that you lock the hdd with a pc, and if you switch the pins over "assuming that like a normal hdd, there are pins. switch them over to slave and run it as a "storage drive" "like a pc with 2 hdd's" then maybe you can use win xp defrag on it, or a linux version?
other than that, maybe my pc backup that I normally burn to dvd could be defragged before burning it "probably way off there" or using a clean hdd "stock xbox or just wiping the hdd "formatting it using the unleashx file explorer thing?" maybe then putting all the data from the dvd backup, exactly and only the files that you have because your not moving and deleting and shifting "since the backup is exactly what you want and
anyway (rambling) Ex. I have been using mimesis to dl halo 2 maps then deleting the ones I don't like, same with over a gig of roms and such. then deleting mimesis.
Now I have the xbox exactly the way I want it, so I make a backup. now cleaning the xbox hdd completely up, formatting it in some way would maybe delete and clean up all the scraps left from deleting and such, then installing the full backup disk. it would leave me with exactly and only what I want (this is based on pc's with the file shredding programs and how deleting only makes pace avail, for overwriting and not actually clearing it and such)
Like I said, I'm rambling, don't know how it works, and am not good at writing.
I did use spell check.

[Crackmatt]

You can't just hook it up, it's locked, and the you have to hotswap it to the computer in order to unlock it and view the files.

[ForrrestMaster]

If you unlock it you may be able to. I am about to try it. lol

[fallenleader]

well, still its just an idea, was playing mario on the snes emu. and it lagged so i got the idea and its been circling round my head since. Plus my hdd is stock and almost full. Was also pondering if the other partitions could be changed or reduced in size, maybe leaving only the C: D: and E:

Anyway, just running in circles.

[digitalhigh]

Wow...that was stupid. Forget I asked about the filesystem...I'm baked.

The xbox uses XFS...not NTFS or FAT. Unless there's some kind of universal defragger program out there, I don't think you can do it. Fragmenting is based on where chunks of a file are distributed in the filesystem...if you don't know how to use the filesystem, you can't defrag it.

As far as the benefits of it(hypothetically)...it depends on what you use your HDD for. If it's just for gamesaves and mp3's then no, it's not gonna do much for you. But if you are constantly downloading and deleting bigger files like HD movies or game rips, then yes, defragmenting would theoretically offer you some advantages as far as access speed for files...

But it is a cool idea, just for the hell of it.

[ForrrestMaster]

Quote: Originally Posted by digitalhigh

Wow...that was stupid. Forget I asked about the filesystem...I'm baked.

The xbox uses XFS...not NTFS or FAT. Unless there's some kind of universal defragger program out there, I don't think you can do it. Fragmenting is based on where chunks of a file are distributed in the filesystem...if you don't know how to use the filesystem, you can't defrag it.

Haha I forgot about that. Yeah that is true. I forgot the format system is different. I dont know what I was thinking either. But i wasnt baked that day. I was on wed at school though when i did xbox support haah.

[fallenleader]

Thought about it after posting as well. too late had to sleep. But i thought "how stupid of me, its a different file system"

I have been moving gigs of data "halo maps and emu's" so, I just got the idea. But how about using unleashx's formating thing. "isn't there one in the file explorer thing?" then just dumping the backup disk I made? "isn't there still fragments of deleted data on there regardless of the file system?"

Anyway, thank you for using valuable time for me. Sorry I didn't know enough to have saved the time for you.

[ForrrestMaster]

Dont worry about it. Well you could i guess reformat different partitions. You can reformat the F drive and the cache but i wouldnt do the E drive unless you can hotswap to put the dash back on.

[digitalhigh]

I would think that, in theory, completely wiping a drive and then ftp-ing or copying the files back to the HDD would give you a relatively frag-free drive.

Then again, how much work do you want to go through for what will probably be mostly unnoticed effects?

[ForrrestMaster]

Quote: Originally Posted by digitalhigh

I would think that, in theory, completely wiping a drive and then ftp-ing or copying the files back to the HDD would give you a relatively frag-free drive.

Then again, how much work do you want to go through for what will probably be mostly unnoticed effects?

Its not that much work. XboxHDM has simplified it down SOOO much lol.

[Zarcu]

Yeah, the filesystem is fatx. It will become fragmented but there really isn't anything you can do about it.