DEFRAG - specifying file order on disk?

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Jean - 07 Feb 2007 15:24 GMT

I'm trying to burn a DVD for a slide show. I want the display sequence to
follow the alphabetic sort-order of image names. Unfortunately, the program
I'm using (Adaptec/Roxio) puts the files on the DVD in the order in which
the file names appear in the folder's hard-drive directory (ie, file
creation order).

So I was trying to think of a way to rearrange the files on the hard drive
so that they are in alphabetic order. I've seen references to using DEFRAG
in MS-DOS mode with an optional key/flag that specifies that the final file
order on the hard drive should be in alpahbetic name order. Can DEFRAG be
successfully invoked this way on a Windows ME system?

Thanks for any help.

Jean

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Mike M - 07 Feb 2007 16:13 GMT

Jean,

I think that you will find the order in which you display the files on the
hard drive in Explorer has little to so with the order in which the files
are burned to the DVD. Files are customarily burned in alphanumeric order
and you can check this for yourself using an application such as ISOBuster
which will tell you which specific blocks on the DVD are used for which
file, or rather the starting block of each file.

Incidentally when using Explorer and displaying files in file creation
order this rarely means that that is the order they are stored on the hard
drive unless the drive was completely empty before any files were added
and no files have ever been deleted.

I would suggest that you use a numbering scheme if you wish to have your
files in a specific order on the DVD such as
nnn fileB
nnn fileA
nnn fileZ
nnn fileQ
where nnn are digits starting at 001. Don't use 1-9 if more than ten
files or 1-99 if more than 100 files but rather 01-99 or 001-999 otherwise
you might find that one some players the order appears as
1
10
100
2
3
etc.

I would advise you not to waste your time with DEFRAG as I feel it is
irrelevant to solving your problem.

Signature

Mike Maltby
mike.maltby@gmail.com

> I'm trying to burn a DVD for a slide show. I want the display
> sequence to follow the alphabetic sort-order of image names.
[quoted text clipped - 10 lines]
>
> Thanks for any help.

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Jean - 07 Feb 2007 22:30 GMT

Perhaps I need to re-state the problem : the file names for the slides on
the hard drive are specially coded so that the alphanumeric sort order IS
the required play order in the slide show. The CD/DVD burner program did
not write the files to the DVD in alphanumeric sort order. Rather, the file
order on the DVD seems to correspond to the creation dates of the files
...which, unfortunately, is not the same as the alphanumeric sort order.

Based on my past experience with mainframes, I assumed (shame on me!) that
in Windows, the file entries within folder's hard drive directory were in
sequential "creation date" order. And I was guessing that the order of the
files within the folder's directory is the order in which the files were
burned to the DVD.

Jean

| Jean,
|
[quoted text clipped - 46 lines]
| >
| > Thanks for any help.

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Mike M - 07 Feb 2007 23:45 GMT

Jean,

The physical order of the files on the DVD is irrelevant. What problem
you have is with the viewer or player. Change the order in which the
viewer views or plays them.

Files are just blobs of data, lots of blobs making up a file and in the
case of a hard disk the blobs can be dotted all over the surface. All
that defrag does is attempt to consolidate these blobs of data so that
they are adjacent to each other. You "view" these files using a tool such
as Windows Explorer, this then displays the files in your chosen order, by
default sorted by the Name column if viewed in details view but if viewed
as icons in a web view they can be dotted all over the viewing window.
What you "see" using Windows Explorer in no way indicates the order of the
blobs on the hard disk or whether they are consolidated or widely
scattered.

In the case of a CD or DVD, then yes, unless packet written, each file is
a contiguous blob of data but again unless you use a tool such as
isobuster what you see and the order in which these files appear if viewed
as a list depends on the viewer.

Signature

Mike Maltby
mike.maltby@gmail.com

> Perhaps I need to re-state the problem : the file names for the
> slides on the hard drive are specially coded so that the alphanumeric
[quoted text clipped - 9 lines]
> guessing that the order of the files within the folder's directory is
> the order in which the files were burned to the DVD.

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Jean - 08 Feb 2007 01:57 GMT

Well, in my case the physical order of the files on the DVD is definitely
relevant. I have over 1000 slides arranged in over 40 folders. The folder
names and the names of the slides within each folder denote the order in
which the slides should be played. It is not feasible for me to manually
jump around to display the slides within each folder in the proper order.

| Jean,
|
[quoted text clipped - 34 lines]
| > guessing that the order of the files within the folder's directory is
| > the order in which the files were burned to the DVD.

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Mike M - 08 Feb 2007 10:08 GMT

Check your player. I have yet to see one that does not default to Name
order and to put files in a specific order all that is ever needed is to
preface the name with a number. Loop to my original post. Any problem you
might be having is with your player/viewer and not the operating system on
your PC so would suggest you contact the maker of the slide viewer for
assistance.

Signature

Mike Maltby
mike.maltby@gmail.com

> Well, in my case the physical order of the files on the DVD is
> definitely relevant. I have over 1000 slides arranged in over 40
> folders. The folder names and the names of the slides within each
> folder denote the order in which the slides should be played. It is
> not feasible for me to manually jump around to display the slides
> within each folder in the proper order.

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