Quote:NTFS is a Microsoft technology and will never be used locally on the PS3. NTFS is part of the Windows NT family of products (NT 3.0-4.0, 2K, XP, Vista) and is well over a decade and a half old.
PS3 uses a Sony proprietary format that is loosely based on EXT3 which requires no defragmentation.
In addition the way the files are managed on the PS3 means that very few if any file fragments are generated during the course of your use.
File Fragments are generated when a file is written too and the file size grows as a result. The majority of Game saves and game installs never increases the size of the actual file size over time. Thus no fragments are ever generated by the player when committing to these operations.
Only times where fragmentation might occur are software patches to already installed data, add-ons, or the repetition of continuously downloaded material like videos. However none of these are enough to create massive amounts of file fragmentation that becomes detrimental to the system.
Also during the starting install and starting download screens the PS3 does a quick shuffling of data that is currently on the drive in order to make room for the new file that is to be created on the hard drive. This drastically reduces the odds of fragmentation even more. The shuffling attempts to re-unit fragments or move smaller files around to locations where a fragment for bigger files might end up thus creating a larger space for larger files. Since there is so little fragmentation to begin with this process normally only takes a few seconds before it can actually start the download/install process.
As a result if a defrag utility was ever created for the PS3 it would be useless. The performance benefits are so small that you'll question why you even bothered to run the defrag to begin with.
The only time this system begins to break down is when your hard drive is almost completely full. Since you need a large space to do defrag to begin with it further negates the necessity for a defrag utility so both means of fragmentation prevention fails. However in this case you should be considering getting a new hard drive for your PS3 anyway, as you've obviously have out grown your 20/40/60/80 gig hard drive.