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1998-02-11
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________________________________________________________________
Unfrag (VERSION 1.0)
Copyright (c) 1997 Ziff-Davis Publishing Company
Written by Jeff Prosise
First Published in PC Magazine, US Edition, December 16, 1997.
________________________________________________________________
About Unfrag:
If you're a Windows 95 or Windows NT user, you may be losing
precious disk space without even knowing it. Most hard disks
today contain compound files created by Microsoft Word,
Microsoft Excel, and other applications that support Object
Linking and Embedding (OLE). Compound files, when fragmented,
can waste a lot of disk space. This issue's free utility, which I've
named Unfrag to distinguish it from conventional hard disk
defraggers, hunts down compound files and unfragments them for you.
Usage:
To install Unfrag, copy Unfrag.exe to the folder of your choice.
There are no auxiliary files or DLLs to copy, and Unfrag writes
nothing to your system's registry. The entire program can be
uninstalled simply by deleting Unfrag.exe.
When executed, Unfrag displays a simple dialog box. To begin
the unfragging process, enter a file name or file name specification
(for example, *.doc) in the Named box and a path name identifying
a drive or folder in the Folder box. If you'd like Unfrag to unfrag
compound files in the specified folder and its subfolders, check the
"Include subfolders" box. Then click the Unfrag button.
When executed, Unfrag displays a simple dialog box.
To begin the unfragging process, enter a file name or
file name specification (for example, *.doc) in the Named
box and a path name identifying a drive or folder in the
Folder box. If you'd like Unfrag to unfrag compound files
in the specified folder and its subfolders, check the
"Include subfolders" box. Then click the Unfrag button.
As the unfragging process runs its course, Unfrag keeps
you apprised of its progress with a dialog box.
"Files examined" indicates how many files have thus far
been found whose names match the pattern in the Named
box. "Compound files found" tells you how many of those
files are compound files. Each time it identifies a compound
file, Unfrag unfragments the file, compares the new file size
to the old, and adds the difference to the "Bytes saved"
value displayed in the dialog. Note that not all compound
files shrink when they're unfragmented because some have
no dead space in them. Don't be alarmed if "Bytes saved"
doesn't increase every time a compound file is processed.
You can cancel an unfragging operation at any time by
clicking the Cancel button. When unfragging is complete,
the Cancel button changes to an OK button. The dialog
box remains on the screen until OK is clicked so you can
review the results of the unfragging process. You may
invoke online help for Unfrag by selecting "Help" from
the System menu or pressing function key F1.
Unfrag supports a full set of command line options that
enable it to be run without user intervention. This feature
will come in handy if you wish to use System Agent or a
similar utility to schedule the launch of Unfrag and let it
run unattended. Unfrag's command-line syntax is:
UNFRAG pathname [/S] [/R]
where pathname is the path to the folder containing the
files to be unfragged, /S tells Unfrag to process files in the
specified folder and its subfolders (equivalent to checking
the "Include subfolders" box in the Unfrag window), and
/R means "Run now"-the command-line equivalent of
clicking the Unfrag button in Unfrag's main window.
The pathname parameter may include a file specification
(for example, *.doc). Be sure to enclose pathname in
quotation marks if the path name includes spaces.
Otherwise, Unfrag will interpret a space embedded in a
path name as a separator character marking the end of a
command-line parameter.
A few examples will help to clarify Unfrag's command-line
options. Suppose you're using System Agent to launch
Unfrag in the wee hours of the morning, and you'd like
Unfrag, when started, to unfrag all the .doc files on
drive C:. Here's the command to use:
UNFRAG C:\*.DOC /S /R
If you'd rather have Unfrag unfrag all the files in drive
C:'s My Documents folder and its subfolders, use this
command instead:
UNFRAG "C:\My Documents" /S /R
To restrict Unfrag to just the My Documents folder
(no subfolders), omit the /S switch:
UNFRAG "C:\My Documents" /R
Be sure to include a /R switch if you want Unfrag to
start processing files immediately. If you omit this
switch, the options you entered on the command line
will show up in Unfrag's window (for example, the
"Include subfolders" box will be checked if the
command line includes a /S switch), but unfragging
won't begin until the Unfrag button is clicked.
Note: The file UNFRAG_S.ZIP contained in UNFRAG.ZIP is the
source code for Unfrag. This will only be of interest
to you if you are a programmer, and can be discarded
if you choose.
Support for Unfrag:
Support for the free utilities offered by PC Magazine can be
obtained electronically in the discussion area of PC
Magazine's Web site. Go to the URL
http://www.pcmag.com/discuss.htm/ and select the Utilities
area. You can also access the Utilities discussion area from the
utility's download page. The authors of current utilities
generally monitor the discussion area every day. You may
find an answer to your question simply by reading the
messages previously posted. If the author is not available and
you have a question that the sysops can't answer, the editor of
the Utilities column, who also checks the area each day, will
contact the author for you.
Jeff Prosise is a contributing editor of PC Magazine.