What is Ts2ki Data Fragmentation and why do I need to be concerned with it?
If you know the answer to this question just skip to the next section but if you don't know the answer please read on. When a database becomes slow it is usually assumed to be due to having more data than it previously had. This may be true but the real reason for degraded performance may be data fragmentation. A database is similar to a deck of cards except with a lot more cards. For instance, for every gigabyte of Ts2ki data there are about a million "cards" or blocks of data. Each of these data blocks contains certain amounts of data about a certain symbol. When playing cards, you usually organize your "hand" by card suit and card sequence. When you get a lot of cards in your hand arranging the cards becomes more of a problem so you can imagine what trying to keep track of millions of "cards" would be like. For this reason databases use Index files which are basically "cheat sheets" which tell where a record is located in the database. This makes data management much easier because the Index file only takes up about 5% of the total size of the data. So, instead of physically moving data around, the data pointers are just changed in the Index file. This is fine from a file management standpoint but one data block my be near the start of the file and the next logical data block may be near the end of the file so the disk head has to go to the start of the file to obtain the first block of data and then to the end of the file to obtain the second block of data . Not only does this add an unnecessary amount of work to the disk but it increases the amount of time it takes to obtain the data. The Ts2ki Data Defragmentaion Utility (Unfrag) re-writes the Ts2ki data files so that the data is stored in a logical order which minimizes disk workload and speeds up data access.
If I perform Ts2ki Data Defragmentation do I need to be concerned with disk fragmentation
In short, the answer is yes. The Ts2ki Unfrag utility sequences the blocks of data optimally within the data file but that file consists of multiple disk data clusters each containing multiple file data blocks and as in the prior case, the first disk cluster for the file may be near the start of the disk and the next cluster located near the end of the disk. The keywords here are File for Ts2ki Unfrag and Disk for the Disk Defragmenter - two different programs for two different requirements. The bottom line is that both the Ts2ki Unfrag utility and a Disk Defragmenter should be used with the Ts2ki Unfrag utility run first and the the Disk Defragmenter afterwords.
The Ts2ki Unfrag Utility is well matched to the needs of the user and should make a very valuable addition to the Ts2ki tools.
