Hi
I have 3 questions please:
I have to be able to defrag my hard drive from time to time I use Auslogics Disk Defrag, would I be able to continue using it say once a week for defraging with CTM installed?
if I cant use defrag when CTM is installed on my hard drive, what is the safe way to uninstall CTM?
3)on a different subject, how often is it recommended to take snapshots and how much mb each one takes?
thanks a lot!
Technically you can, but you definitely shouldn’t.
The CTM snapshot data is stored on the unused portion of your hard drive. The snapshot records all movements/changes to files and defragging is ALL about moving.
CTM data is automatically optimized. I doubt there would be a real performace benefit in defragging. Do you really need to defrag once a week, or is this something you just prefer to do? If there is a real “need”, what would that need be?
2) if I cant use defrag when CTM is installed on my hard drive, what is the safe way to uninstall CTM?
IMHO, the safest way to uninstall CTM is to reset the current snapshot to be your baseline, reboot and then uninstall CTM from the CTM console.
Does your qustion mean that you would rather be able to defrag your hard drive than have CTM on it?
3)on a different subject, how often is it recommended to take snapshots and how much mb each one takes?
How often to take a snapshot is like asking how often should I do backups? There is no hard and fast rule as each of us do things differently and have different priorities. How big a snapshot is depends of what has happened/changed on the system.
For myself, I have CTM configured to take a snapshot the first time the system is turned on each day. It deletes unlocked snapshots older than 8 days (giving me over a weeks worth of fallback) and optimizes (sort of defrags) the snapshots after deleting 8 shapshots (marrying up with the duration I keep snapshots for).
If I was given a choice of defragging or keeping CTM, I’d pick CTM 7 ways to Sunday. Defragging does not deliver the same performance boost it used to when disks were slower, and defragging should NEVER be done on an SSD.
Speed over data integrity?
Data integrity wins every time.
Hope this helps,
Ewen 
[/quote]
When you install CTM 2.9 Beta, at the end of installation it mentions a list of things you shouldn’t do with CTM installed.
whats your opinion on this following:
from
"Defragmenting is necessary on any Windows computer
by atlcr - 9/2/11 4:10 PM
In Reply to: Today’s new PCs, to defrag the hard drive or not? by Lee Koo (ADMIN) Moderator CNET staff
As long as Windows continues to use NTFS, there will continue to be a need for defragging the hard drive. This applies to all versions of Windows in existence today and will most likely still apply to Windows 8 when it comes out. With Linux-based file systems (ex. EXT3), there is no need to defragment as the file system is built in such a way that it does not fragment to begin with. The reasons for this are technical and beyond the scope of this post.
So, the short answer is Yes, you need to defragment your drive occasionally, even in Windows 7. You can schedule it to run at night or some other time when you are not using it. I prefer to use a program called Smart Defrag which is made by IOBit. It’s a free download from there site and it’s free to use indefinitely. It does a much better job of defragmenting than the defragment tool that comes with Windows.
"
I still am of the opinion that defragging on a modern PCs is of little benefit. I’m not saying it doesn’t do what it says it does - I’m just querying the overall benefit-effort ratio (Is the marginal increase in load speeds sufficient to offest the total time taken to fragment the drive?).
Without a stopwatch, would you really know if things were quicker, and if you need a stopwatch to prove it’s quicker, is it really enough of an improvement to invest your time?
Re. the c.net forum posts - there was one that caught my eye.
Defragging is still an important thing to do on any computer it can speed up your computer and also save wear and tare on the hard drives. The hard drive has an arm that searches for the information to start programs and retrieve data. If your hard drive is fragmented then bits of programs and data can be scattered over the hard drive media. So when the arm looks for the required information it moves back and forward over the drive if the drive is defrayed then the drive arm will move less speeding up the computer and saving wear and tare
Ummmmm … so in order to make the hard drive arm move less when I need to access one file, I will make it dance like a dervish for an extended period accessing all files? 88) 
Again, this comes down to benefit-effort.
I’m still not convinced, but if you think you need to defrag, then defrag.
Ewen
would defraging once a month be a better choice of not at all? why not enjoy the benefits of a defragged hard drive while on the other hand not forcing upon it this aggressive procedure more than once a month?
if you defrag while CTM is installed you will see a big drop in free space on your hard drive. CTM will see the files on your hard drive being moved and record that. Since you are defragging your whole hard drive CTM will record all that data being moved and result in large amounts of hard drive space. So if you really want to defrag you will have to uninstall CTM first.
It’s completely up to you when/if you want to defrag.
It’s probably best if you wait for someone else to respond - I’m just going to keep on saying it’s not worth the effort.
2) whats the disadvantage about doing a defrag and afterwards taking a snapshot what would happen to hard drive?
I shudder to think.
Defraggers are not aware of CTM or the fact that CTM is storing data in the areas of the disk that Windows (and therefore the defragger) think is unused. Defraggers use this “empty” area for juggling files while they are rearranged on the disk. Most likely, they would overwrite portions of one or more snapshots, rendering CTM kaput.
Defrag OR CTM - NOT BOTH!!! It doesn’t matter how many questions you ask or how you phrase your questions, defraggers and CTM are simply not compatible.
Cheers,
Ewen
ok I want to phrase it a bit different and that will be my last try…
what happens if I defrag my hard drive and then when everything is defraged
I create a snapshot and make it my baseline (erasing all previous snapshots) would it work then? would it still hog the free space on my hard drive?
or
OK - one more time - do not run a defragger when CTM is installed on your system.
2. would it be better to first uninstall CTM then defrag and then re-install CTM just for that purpose of the once in a month defrag?
Only if you absolutely feel the need to run a defrag at all. Point 2 above is the only way I could recommend defragging on a CTM protected system - reset baseline, uninstall CTM, reboot, defrag, install CTM.
Cheers,
Ewen
Something about disk defrag
Read post 4
You may find my post offtopic, just for info
And some more info here by the same Dev here –
The registry defrag is a little different than a disk defrag. Registry data structure is stored in registry hive files. This files are loaded during computer boot into the memory. The more fragmented the registry are, the bigger the registry hives. This mean that the boot time will be bigger. So basically the registry defrag is done to shrink the registry hive files, this leading to a better boot time.
Disk defrag is done to improve seek time when accessing the file. When accessing a file, the more fragmented it is, the longer it will take to read it, because it’s buffers are spread all over the HDD. Because the seek time of a SSD is almost 0, the defrag is no longer needed.