HDDs: 2 Simple questions.

1. How much should a hard drive be filled? What %? Until windows shows it as red(>90%)?
2. What allocation unit size should i use to format my 2TB Seagate? I'm planning to use it as a secondary hard drive to store HD/fullHD anime which will mostly be more than 500mb/part hence i think that 32kb or 64kb would be best.

@ First question, I think windows shows it as red once it gets below 1GB, so the percentage would be different depending on how much space there is to start with.

@ Second question, idk sorry >.<.

lol no, the first hdd that I'm talking about is another 2tb Seagate so there are currently only 120gb free but i'll just move some files to the new one.

15% free space is a good general rule of thumb to keep your files defragmented.

So you mean that I should leave 270GB free in a 2TB hard drive, right?
I'm more concerned about the fact that it being full might somehow damage it physically(if that's [possible at all), speed isn't all that important as long as it can play 1080p movies(which shouldn't be a problem).

No, having a hard drive full won't damage it. Fragmentation won't matte if you plan on keeping it full and for archival purposes. It only matter's if you're keeping Windows on the 2 TB

No, i actually use the 1TB one for windows since it's also faster(7200RPM). So basically it won't do any damage at all in the long term if i keep it full(90%) right?

No, unless there is data continually moving around on that hard drive.

No, no data will be in continuous use in the hard drive, except for the video files which i will be probably watching but i don't think that's going to be a problem, right?
In the worst case I'll be watching anime 12hours/day - can that be bad?

Like what tegumi said man...and that picture is scaring me man :( get a new drive to store stuff. or itll be a pain to defrag that. 0_o

He doesn't need to defrag it, none of the files will be moving around continuously. It's just his storage for large files and it is fine to use all of the space for that purpose. Reading from full HDD = ok. Writing/swapping around with a full HDD = not ok.

Besides if his hard drive is full there will be no empty spaces for fragmentation to occur. His disk will be naturally defragmented! Durrrr

my mistake about his files :P but you didn't have to make me look like a moron. :(

Thanks guys for the help. I appreciate it.

Almost right: if he keeps defragmenting the drive as it fills up, then it shouldn't be too bad.

However you're wrong: fragmentation isn't just the "gaps" themselves. Fragmentation refers to the fact, that Windows "fragments" files to fill these gaps.

This causes a delay when reading these files as the HDD's head has to reposition to the next fragment before it can continue reading. Once *fragmented*, unless you take the effort to move data around and restore continuity, the file will *remain* fragmented.

Fragmentation *doesn't* degrade the "quality" of the data or damage the disk. All it causes is an inevitable delay, a drop in read and write speed and a negligible loss of free-space as information on where the "next" fragment of the file also has to appended to each chunk.

The bottom line: if you store a lot of big files on a disk that will remain there, it pays off to defragment it every once in a while as it improves performance and reduces the chance of new files written to the disk becoming fragmented.

Also: moving a file from one directory to another on the same partition *doesn't* involve actually moving the file. All that changes is that it's entry the "catalog" of the file system changes. Copying by comparison *does* as it creates a second instance of the file.

Thanks Flaser! I've been waiting for an answer from you :)
So even after it's been filled the hard drive should be defragmented once a while( once a month or two?).
BTW because I'm a little paranoid about this :
Is it fine if i fill it almost completely/ leaving only a couple of GBs free?

The reason Flaser explained fragmentation to you is so that you can be informed and make logical decisions. You can answer your own question if you try. If your hard drive doesn't change in a month with gaps then you don't need to defrag it.

No. Reading from a drive doesn't cause fragmentation. Writing *can*. If you don't write any new files to the drive, then it won't become any (more) fragmented.

De-fragmentation is only necessary when fragmentation occurs, although the whole issue is not as great (especially for large files like videos) as it's usually made out to be.

However a drive that's never defraged can get in an atrocious shape, especially the system drive as there you have millions of files written and deleted over the lifetime of the partition.

This doesn't hurt the drive or the data, but can significantly impact reading/writing speed to that partition.

All of what was said only applies to hard-drives with moving parts.

Solid state disks don't have moving parts and don't have a seek-time, so fragmentation doesn't affect them the same way as it does hard-drives.

Want to ask something hdd related here

If i open my hdd, it'll show the folders inside. But after that, I need to wait several sec for opening one of those folders. If i click on the folders too much, the windows explorer would even go "not responding" and i'm forced to force-closed it. Does anyone know what is happening?