Defrag

[tim123]

Many moons ago, Defrag used to do its job properly and took all day to do so.

Now it runs in 10 minutes and only does part of the job.

My disk is really fragemented. I have some large files there (though not excessively large) and one of them is in 300 bits. Defrage refuses to 'clean' them and wehn finsihed tells me that "some files could not be defragmented" - why the **** not?

Can any one tell me how I can get my disk deframgmented properly (for free).

I'm running XP

thanks

tim

[Ardesco]

Have you got enough free disk space?


May sound silly but unless you have at lease 15% (I think that's the right number) free defrag won't work properly.

[tim123]

Have you got enough free disk space?


May sound silly but unless you have at lease 15% (I think that's the right number) free defrag won't work properly.

About 40% of the disk is free. It's been well thrashed with torrents so there are used blocks everywhere.

The largest (3) files represent about 5% of the disk (each) and there certainly isn't an empty space anywhere close to this big. But there are lots of small files that it refused to defrag as well, WTF doesn't it move them?

tim

[Ardesco]

Could always try a third party defrag tool:

http://www.perfectdisk.com/products/perfectdisk2k/
http://www.oo-software.com/home/en/products/oodefrag/

I don't use either but have heard good things about o&o, it's not free though.

[Clippy]

What are the files that defrag fails to work on?

They may be system files (e.g swap file) or they may currently be in use by the O/S.

Try Diskeeper. You can download a fully functional trial version from their website.

Failing that, this list may help.

[Clippy]

What are the files that defrag fails to work on?

They may be system files (e.g swap file) or they may currently be in use by the O/S.

Try Diskeeper. You can download a fully functional trial version from their website.

Failing that, this list may help.

[Ruprect]

About 40% of the disk is free. It's been well thrashed with torrents so there are used blocks everywhere.

The largest (3) files represent about 5% of the disk (each) and there certainly isn't an empty space anywhere close to this big. But there are lots of small files that it refused to defrag as well, WTF doesn't it move them?

tim

[chef]

Highly recommend diskkeeper, i got the trial version, it made such a huge difference and did exactly what it said on the tin that i bought it mainly for its background defrag meaning i dont have to do it now and again, it's always optimising the disk for me..

its a business expense

[tim123]

I know that I shouldn't really have 4 gig rips on my drive, but this was a once only opportunity.

tim

[gadgetman]

Do these defragging tools work on RAID drives? If so I'm curious how.

Presumably they'd have to look past the logical volume and down to hardware level?