Is defragging safe?

[THE SKULL MERCHANT]

This may be a stupid question (could be my OCD's making me worry too much), but is defragging safe when I have mods installed for Skyrim? Since defragging arranges the hard disk files in order, can it maybe MISPLACE a mod/game files here and there and hence cause issues in my modded game??

* Also I like to specifically defrag only my games through the Razer Cortex app sometimes, should I stop doing it too for the same reasons mentioned above? *

[ShelLuser]

Has 0 to do with anything, it won't affect your mod load order if that's what you're thinking.

Also... it doesn't even necessarily move files around, it only ensures that the allocated data blocks form a whole which - theoretically - improves access speeds. But in this day and age? Assuming you're using Win10 you should probably not even be bothering with any of this since Windows 10 does its own maintenance on the filesystems.

[THE SKULL MERCHANT]

Originally posted by ShelLuser:

Assuming you're using Win10 you should probably not even be bothering with any of this since Windows 10 does its own maintenance on the filesystems.

Yes I'm on windows 10, but I have disabled automatic defrag cuz the last thing I want is windows trying to defrag the system while I'm gaming maybe (I just manually defrag when the fragmentation reaches above 5%). But okay it sounds like I shouldn't be worrying about my modded game getting screwed by a defrag, thanks.

[SpeedFreak1972]

It is safe that said is it a conventional HDD or a SSD, because you must not defragment a SSD there is an optimization process for that. That said I use O&O defrag on the background I haven't used the win 10 one in ages.

[Misuune]

You should run defragmentation once every few months to keep the disk running good especially if you disabled automatic maintenance.

But if I were you I wouldn't bother with some sort of 3rd party apps especially from Razer. Using Windows built in solutions is all a man could need, unless you need some shiny user interface to keep you company. Oh you could possibly also check in every half a year or just every few months with the SFC and DISM commands in the cmd.

[alexander_dougherty]

Originally posted by Hella_Rowdy:

This may be a stupid question (could be my OCD's making me worry too much), but is defragging safe when I have mods installed for Skyrim? Since defragging arranges the hard disk files in order, can it maybe MISPLACE a mod/game files here and there and hence cause issues in my modded game??

Defragging moves files to the same location on your hard drive, it doesn't affect where they are in your filing system, which is what your computer looks at. It's extremely rare for anything to go wrong.

[kdodds]

The only time I ever had anything go wrong on a defrag was when the disk was already failing.

[Vlad 254]

Originally posted by SpeedFreak1972:

It is safe that said is it a conventional HDD or a SSD, because you must not defragment a SSD there is an optimization process for that. That said I use O&O defrag on the background I haven't used the win 10 one in ages.

This

[lizrdfishr]

Originally posted by Vlad 254:

Originally posted by SpeedFreak1972:

It is safe that said is it a conventional HDD or a SSD, because you must not defragment a SSD there is an optimization process for that. That said I use O&O defrag on the background I haven't used the win 10 one in ages.

This

^^yes^^

[alexander_dougherty]

Originally posted by SpeedFreak1972:

because you must not defragment a SSD there is an optimization process for that.

You live and learn... never knew that, not that i've defragged my hard-drive for over ten years...

[SpeedFreak1972]

It is really bad it impairs the longjavety of the ssd ... also if done the defrag program will say it's more fragmented than before you started.

[Vlad 254]

A warning of some sort should pop up when you attempt to defrag a SSD

[SpeedFreak1972]

normally it should you have really press ok to continue