MP3 players forum: Solve the argument of Ipod Defragging once and for all.....

As you can imagine the hard disk based players do use mechanical devices. Defragmenting does add wear to that device and could push an unit that would have lasted a year or 2 down to a few weeks.

Why should you care what others say? Do what you want.

I do want to share that I found some stuttering to vanish by pushing the sound file over to Apple's encoding rather than variable rate MP3.
Bob

Just here that issue occured on just one set of files. It was an oddity so I looked and found VBR MP3s and tossed them over. That was that.

As to your question, I think you want to know what the future holds. I can't tell. It should be fine but imagine those that suffer a failure. They might tell me I broke their pod.
Bob

I appreciate your help Bob, I might still need it, but my ipod has recovered! The deleting of album artwork and restoration to factory setting has worked wonders! Flicks through all 3135 songs with ease. Losing the Album Artwork is merly a small price to pay for a fully functional and satisfactory ipod....thanks once again for your input bob and i will sure to take a look at those VBR files....

You were talking about AAC weren't you Bob when descibing about Apple's "encoding" format? I wanted to know if u used their default settings....

Thanks for tip Bob but I am just sticking to the apple settings of high quality (128kps), i am now debating with myself whether i should delete the songs that are VBR and in mp3 and keep the ones in AAC. Aside from that, I hope your VBR conversion tip does pay off. This morning I noticed the ipod was freezing/stuttering on some tracks but would comfortably fling through others so i looked up your VBR tip and started converting to aac....hopefully this should make the problem go away once and for all......

hmmmm I didn't have that issue with mine, I think mine was more of the interface stuttering that the actual playback. But none the less thanks for noting your experience with the ipod defrag. I am still far too iffy on the whole subject. I mean apple say not to do it, at risk of ruining your ipod, so it therefore make sense to heed their warnings seeing that they make the product. I think i will talk to a apple genius about this.

Defragging a hard drive causes physical DAMAGE to a hard drive?

That's a new one. Who at Apple has the nerve to make that insipid and inane claim? Are those tiny HDs from Toshiba (or whomever Apple sourced them from) that delicately weak and anemic that a simple defrag will render them useless? And we're supposed to accept this bald statement? What kind of crap is Apple putting into these iPods, anyways?

If you wipe you drive clean you will not have to worry about defraging because there is nothing left that could be fragmented.
Also from what I know there is a big difference between restoring
and defraging. Restoring does a clean sweep over your ipod's hd while
defraging the hd would make it move files. (Something that I'm pretty sure is not something it does normally. Please correct me if I'm wrong.)
Which would possible put a lot of strain on the drive and possibly increase the heat it generates which could damage the drive.

Defragging my 120 as we speak....I'll give results after completion...one thing is for sure...it's really slow process