Disk Defragmenter, what to do?

Nestor · Post by **Nestor** » Fri May 31, 2002 10:08 am

Is there a freeware application I could download from the Net, to defragment my HDs? The Windows Disk Defragmenter would not work properly anymore. It goes only up to 10% of the job, and then restarts again, and over and over again and never does it fully, but 10%.

I can actually defragment Drive D, the Audio one, but not C, the programs one. Any suggestion? Thanks.

Fede · Post by **Fede** » Fri May 31, 2002 10:41 am

Is there any dynamic file in c: like swap file? If so, it's normal, because when defragmenting windows makes use of the virtual memory and the content of the unit changes continously each time the task starts

CAPO · Post by **CAPO** » Fri May 31, 2002 10:53 am

Um... well first off you need to make sure that every single program that is on your comp is NOT RUNNING

that includes screen saves (just turn the screen off manualy)

if there are any scheduled tasks, make sure that you pause them for the durration that the defrag runs.

oh and make sure also that your C partition/drive is not dynamic... if it is then you will have problems because the drive (I believe) just keeps refreshing itself over and over. I think if your drive is dynamic you are not realy requiered to reboot every time you install somthing, but I could be wrong.

good luck,

and once you get it defraged, make sure you do it weekly (especialy before you record audio... make sure you defrag the destination drive for the audio files)

lata

Nestor · Post by **Nestor** » Fri May 31, 2002 12:15 pm

Thanks guys… I actually defrag my Audio HD, which is D, but can’t defrag the HD C, which is Programs.

I don’t know what you mean by dynamic files, what are them?

Of course, I switch all applications off when I’m defragmenting. No screen saver. My C drive it’s a IBM IDE drive 72.000, 10Gbs, and it’s divided by MagicBoot into two partitions of 5Gbts each. One I always use for only music programs, and the other for my office stuff.

I really need to defragment it, cos it’s getting divided apart… What can I do so?

Immanuel · Post by **Immanuel** » Fri May 31, 2002 9:54 pm

If you have a second PC, you can put you hard drive in that one. Maybe it will defrag, if it has nothing at all to do. Have you tried defragging right after boot, when you have lots of memory?

Immanuel

marcuspocus · Post by **marcuspocus** » Fri May 31, 2002 10:28 pm

If there is not enough free space for moving your biggest chunk of files, it will never defrag. You need enough space on it. 100meg for a 5gigs drive should be enough.

Post by **garyb** » Fri May 31, 2002 11:25 pm

use control alt del to shut down everything unessential.it should work.

Fede · Post by **Fede** » Sat Jun 01, 2002 2:04 am

From recent attempts I can state it is necessary for a working defrag to have at least 10% free space on the drive/partition.
with dynamic files I intend all temporary files, cache (IE/browsers), temp directories, windows virtual memory (win386.swp), all those ones that may be in use and need continous updating/refreshing. How it works: when defrag starts it analyzes the content of the unit (first 10% of the job) then if there haven't been any changes defragmenter starts moving clusters, else if something has changed for any reason it is necessary to restart and look again at the structure of the file system.
So if a dynamic file/folder is present in the unit it is possible that defrag analyzes the content (goes to first 10%) and restarts continously saying in the status bar of the details window (obviously choose "see deatils") "The content of the unit is changed, restarting analyze".
Check: virtual memory, temps are in another unit (if no you have to move them), free disk space is at least 10% of the unit (20% would be better) and no application is running (with task manager end all processes except system, mprexe, msgsrv32, spool32, systray, mmtask, ddhelp, explorer).
Obviously shut down antivirus software!

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: StratoFede on 2002-06-01 05:25 ]</font>

sandrob · Post by **sandrob** » Sat Jun 01, 2002 3:46 am

i disable virtual memory?

Fede · Post by **Fede** » Sat Jun 01, 2002 4:22 am

If you have enough memory (>=256MB could be enough): YES, disable virtual memory, all realtime applications will run faster (audio & defragmenting included) or, better for me, add this line in system.ini:

[386Enh]
ConservativeSwapfileUsage=1

This setting ensures windows doesn't use virtual memory till it is really necessary (i.e. batch processing of huge audio files like compressing a 100MB wav).
In addition keep in mind that if you have 2GB of RAM and decide to disable virtual memory, some applications programmed to perform a basic check on this (i.e. Photoshop, printing routine) may refuse running, because of the absence of virtual memory even if it is not necessary at all!

kensuguro · Post by **kensuguro** » Sat Jun 01, 2002 4:31 am

Is there any way to schedule the defrag to take place right after boot? Like in NT? I think that's the best time to do it since no files are loaded into memory yet.

provolone · Post by **provolone** » Sat Jun 01, 2002 4:32 am

If you use 98se or millenium you can dwld POWERDEFRAG, (http://www.powerdefrag.com/).
This small utility defrag your hard drives before the start of oS. Is not a prob if you have something in autoexec or autorun that disturb the process.
try it.
Peace

Nestor · Post by **Nestor** » Sat Jun 01, 2002 9:23 am

Thanks very much for your kind unswers, very usefull.

Nestor · Post by **Nestor** » Sat Jun 01, 2002 2:13 pm

I’ve installed PowerDefrag Lite ant it woks great! It’s done! The problem was as explained by you here, luck of space in the drive, and there was not enough space for the HD to swap the defragmented files. Thanks for the tip.

I recommend it to everybody, to those who need something similar than and faster than the Windows defragmenter itself.