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Sindi Keesan wrote:
>
> In DOS we always defrag before copying to a drive 
> with something already on it.  How would we do that 
> with linux? 

It's not necessary with Linux.  The ext2 filesystem
does not fragment like DOS.  However, if you are
tar-ing to a DOS partition, you might want to defrag
the DOS partition first (using DOS tools).

> Does copying automatically accomplish the defrag like 
> it does in DOS?  

Using tar to copy a partition does clean up the filesystem
a bit (because it excludes the dead file fragments that
litter the partition).  On the other hand, when you use dd
to ghost the partiton, all the dead file fragments get
copied over.

> Or does linux not slow down when fragmenting like DOS does?

Fragmentation is not a problem with Linux (except for the
UMSDOS version of Linux).

Cheers,
Steven