Value of defragging Win2000/NTFS regularly?

[Tangent]

Is there any real value to taking the time to defragment an NTFS partition on a new computer on a monthly basis? The last time I did this after a few months of not having done it I noticed absolutely no improvement. The machines in question are not gaming machines by any stretch of the imagination. They're P4 2.6 HTs with 512M RAM and 40G hard drives that are being used for nothing more strenuous that running Word. I personally feel it's not worth the time. Your thoughts?

 

[XOR != OR]

I would end up doing it for form's sake. I doubt you'd see anything from it tho

 

[Tangent]

Well, the problem I have with this is I've got users who's supervisor seems to think defragging is an absolute necessity and right now the users do not have the rights to run defrag... I either have to remote control their machine and do this myself all the time or convince their supervisor that it really isn't doing anything for them... Absolute worst case scenario if their machines somehow got so horribly fragmented that they didn't run anymore I'd just use Zenworks to reimage the thing in about 20 minutes. All the files they need to save are kept on a remote server anyhow.

 

[USMC2Hard4U]

I defrag once a week

I Have alot of disk access tho... I run the whole Office suite, play lots of games, Download stuff regularly, Lots of MP3s and Pics... and have 2 computers on my network that access alot of files from my computer...

 

[Zwitterion]

I've never noticed any improvement at all from it. You might wanna do it just for mental reassurance or something.

 

[Muir]

I would if they are using very large files etc.. I have always been able to tell via playing games or editing video the difference after a defrag. Esp. when it has been awhile since I have done it.

 

[Ranma_Sao]

NTFS defragging is alright every couple of months. But for the usage pattern you're discussing I would almost say you would never have to defrag, since they aren't creating a lot of files, and then deleting them, and then creating more, etc...