Defrag

[Pejic]

In the olden days I used to run defrag from a C:> prompt and this used to (as far as I remember) display a coloured representation of files being moved around and rebuilt in contiguous areas of the disk.

I am now running windows XP version 5.1 and trying to sort my disks out in the hope of speeding up running times.

From Control Panel I select "Rearrange items on your hard disk to make programs run faster" which gives me a "Disk Defragmenter" panel with "Analyse" and "Defragment" options.

If I select Defragment it goes straight to say "Analyzing . . .1%" with a progress bar with one block on it, and doesn't change for at least 15 minutes.

If I select Analyse it goes straight to say "Analyzing . . .10%" with a progress bar with 2 blocks on it, and doesn't change for at least 15 minutes.

If I run defrag C: from a C:> prompt it just seems to hang with the cursor sitting at the start of the next line on the screen.

I remember there was an alternative defrag program but do not now recall waht it was called.

Can any one help please?

[catchall]

Whichever defrag utility you use it will analyse the(each) disk first.


In XP/WindowsExplorer?rightclickthedrive/Properties/Tools/DefragmentNow

Go make a cup of tea or go up the pub for a couple.
It will take time.

[Calverley Lad]

I take it that your drives have not been defragged for a long time, hence the long wait?
The blocks type of display reminds me of Windows 98, where you had to disable the screen saver to prevent defrag from restarting from start.
Was your alternative to defrag a downloaded product, I once tried  disc keeper which installs over normal defrag. (This produced the Windows 98 type of graphic display)
I would set defrag to check drives whilst preparing/eating meal and see how it goes.
I am still running XP Pro and with 120Gig drive takes 15minutes at least.
(On a reasonable good day)
 Brian

[Paul Caswell]

I use Defraggler. I am told it is much better than the Windows one.

http://www.piriform.com/defraggler/download

Paul

[Nick29]

The first part of the defrag process involves the PC looking at all the files, working out where to best relocate them to defrag, and then working out the order to put them on the drive for maximum efficiency.  If there are a lot of files on the disk, this will take a long time, and there will be no apparent action on the display, making it look like the process has hanged.  Defrag is best done when you've got a few hours away from the computer (whilst watching a movie, or the TV, etc).

[TomRees]

Smart Defrag 2 and Auslogic are good ones - both based on the same 'engine', but Smart Defrag also has the ability to defrag system files like the MFT, Pagefile etc during Bootup.

Defragging the C drive will never be 100% as its active logging etc etc ...

Google the above products home sites or go to CNET downloads.

[Pejic]

Thanks everyone.

I'll try patience first.

First defrag for at least 3 years.

460,000 files in 3,600 directories in 20GB of a 36GB disk.

[Pejic]

Patience did it - it started moving after 35 minutes!

Thanks again.

[PaulStaffs]

Unless you're running pretty antiquated hardware, defragging will make next to no difference if you're an average end user. If you are worried about access speed you'd be better off buying some new kit rather than wasting time trying to line up all the bits on an old disc

Paul