In this defragmentation report Gartner states "The Windows 2000 Server built-in defragmentation tool is a multi-pass defragmenter that must be run over and over to defragment the disk, especially when defragmenting very large disks with heavy fragmentation and limited free space."

This is all true. You have probably seen this for yourself.

It continues, "As such, multi-pass defragmenters characteristically fragment remaining free space on the disk, which accelerates fragmentation later."

This is where Gartner goes astray. Very plainly stated, Diskeeper is an automatic multi-pass (I always think of Milla Jovavich in Fifth Element when I say that) defragmenter that has always consolidated free space. However the purpose of this blog is not to argue philosophic viewpoints on multi-pass versus single-pass. That's a whole separate lengthy discussion. I will only address the leap in logic.

For the sake of this discussion let's assume that fragmented free space actually does intrinsically accelerate future fragmentation. Again that is another lengthy separate subject, and one that is not black and white, which I will discuss in detail in a few days.

For kicks and giggles, I'll describe the logic in an analogy; embellishing on the story for mild entertainment purposes (well at least it was entertaining for me to write) and then toss in an entirely redundant quiz.

Apples to Apples:

Joe is hungry and, being a health conscious individual, wants a healthy snack. He goes to the local market to get a bite to eat. He passes by the potato chips and candy bars. Noting a green sourball in the candy section his mouth goes into a panic frenzy remembering how much he hates sour food. He quickly recoups and makes his way to the fruit stand. A juicy red apple, glistening with moisture from the recently run fruit-sprinklers, beckons him. He buys and eats the apple, savoring the sweet taste, while thinking; "I love red apples".

Why, pray-tell, does he not think to say "I love apples"? Because Joe is wise and knowledgeable and knows that not all apples are red. Many are green, and they typically have a slightly bitter taste. Joe doesn't like bitter or sour food, (he accidentally ate a crab apple from his backyard when he was 8 years old) and would never think to buy a green apple. In fact, Joe is such a learned individual he knows apples can come in yellow as well, and for that matter, with a little genetic engineering, could probably come in pink polka-dots!

An apple, by commonly agreed definition, has certain similar characteristics - that's why we call them all apples. But, Joe knows that color is just an attribute of the apple, just as is taste (sour/sweet) or size (large/small) or whether it is natural or engineered that distinguishes different types of apples. He knows that all apples are not the same.

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Here's a multiple-guess question as might appear on a Logic/IQ test:

Fact1: Sue is a girl
Fact2: Sue has red hair

Based on this data we can conclude:
A. All girls have red hair
B. Some girls have red hair
C. Stop beating this dead horse, I get the point, so finish the blog already
D. Both B and C, with A being the wrong answer (hint: pick this one)