Has anyone else noticed that when a Vista defrag is running, that your PC can
entirely lock up for a period (on my PC it's about 3 minutes)?

I believe that when the defrag program de-fragments the windows page file,
or some other key system files, that the GUI basically stalls until the file
is unlocked.

The DWM continues to run and you can move windows around, but all processes
become non-responsive. Basically all message queues are stalled.

The drive rattles for ages and then the system comes back alive if you're
patient.

"warder" wrote:

> Has anyone else noticed that when a Vista defrag is running, that your PC can
> entirely lock up for a period (on my PC it's about 3 minutes)?

NO.

you can change the schedule for defrag running to a time when you are not likely to be using your computer.

and NO it does not happen for me.



(E-Mail Removed)



"warder" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message news:7FB55A7C-5BED-4760-AB9B-(E-Mail Removed)...
Has anyone else noticed that when a Vista defrag is running, that your PC can
entirely lock up for a period (on my PC it's about 3 minutes)?

I believe that when the defrag program de-fragments the windows page file,
or some other key system files, that the GUI basically stalls until the file
is unlocked.

The DWM continues to run and you can move windows around, but all processes
become non-responsive. Basically all message queues are stalled.

The drive rattles for ages and then the system comes back alive if you're
patient.

I have recently been trying the Windows defragmenter and have scheduled it
to run a 8pm every Tuesday. At this time i am actually still working on my
machine and, i have to say, that i haven't noticed any performance
deterioration or system locks. It has just got on with its job. I notice the
hard drive light flashing during the defragment period, but other than that,
and the fact that i had scheduled a defrag at that tine and day, i wouldn't
have know defragmenter was running.

--
John Barnett MVP
Associate Expert
Windows Shell/User

Web: http://xphelpandsupport.mvps.org
Web: http://vistasupport.mvps.org

The information in this mail/post is supplied "as is". No warranty of any
kind, either expressed or implied, is made in relation to the accuracy,
reliability or content of this mail/post. The Author shall not be liable for
any direct, indirect, incidental or consequential damages arising out of the
use of, or inability to use, information or opinions expressed in this
mail/post..

"warder" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:7FB55A7C-5BED-4760-AB9B-(E-Mail Removed)...
> Has anyone else noticed that when a Vista defrag is running, that your PC
> can
> entirely lock up for a period (on my PC it's about 3 minutes)?
>
> I believe that when the defrag program de-fragments the windows page file,
> or some other key system files, that the GUI basically stalls until the
> file
> is unlocked.
>
> The DWM continues to run and you can move windows around, but all
> processes
> become non-responsive. Basically all message queues are stalled.
>
> The drive rattles for ages and then the system comes back alive if you're
> patient.

Dfrgntfs does some fairly processor-intensive scanning when it starts up.
At the command line defrag /a /v <vol> will perform this scan so you can see
if the stalling is caused by analysis. That said, thus far I haven't had or
seen this non-responsiveness here on any of my computers.

Defrag should be doing low priority I/O even with the scanning. What is
your cpu/ram? Is it consistent no matter how much or how little you are
doing on the computer otherwise? None of this should matter but it might be
interesting to recreate.

Thanks


"warder" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:7FB55A7C-5BED-4760-AB9B-(E-Mail Removed)...
> Has anyone else noticed that when a Vista defrag is running, that your PC
> can
> entirely lock up for a period (on my PC it's about 3 minutes)?
>
> I believe that when the defrag program de-fragments the windows page file,
> or some other key system files, that the GUI basically stalls until the
> file
> is unlocked.
>
> The DWM continues to run and you can move windows around, but all
> processes
> become non-responsive. Basically all message queues are stalled.
>
> The drive rattles for ages and then the system comes back alive if you're
> patient.

Warder,
email me and we'll take this offline to stop clogging up the group. My
email is what you see in the newsgroup without the "online".



-Victoria

"warder" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
newsED8E792-3C84-420E-89FF-(E-Mail Removed)...
>I guess it will be a while before I see it again... no defrag now required.
>
> No issue during that analysis though.
>
>
> Microsoft Windows [Version 6.0.6000]
> Copyright (c) 2006 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
>
> C:\Windows\system32>defrag /a /v c:
> Windows Disk Defragmenter
> Copyright (c) 2006 Microsoft Corp.
>
> Analysis report for volume C: C Drive
>
> Volume size = 89.03 GB
> Cluster size = 4 KB
> Used space = 72.22 GB
> Free space = 16.82 GB
> Percent free space = 18 %
>
> File fragmentation
> Percent file fragmentation = 0 %
> Total movable files = 155,072
> Average file size = 558 KB
> Total fragmented files = 29
> Total excess fragments = 167
> Average fragments per file = 1.00
> Total unmovable files = 70
>
> Free space fragmentation
> Free space = 16.82 GB
> Total free space extent = 16,319
> Average free space per extent = 1 MB
> Largest free space extent = 1.90 GB
>
> Folder fragmentation
> Total folders = 17,465
> Fragmented folders = 1
> Excess folder fragments = 0
>
> Master File Table (MFT) fragmentation
> Total MFT size = 217 MB
> MFT record count = 155,402
> Percent MFT in use = 69
> Total MFT fragments = 3
>
> Note: On NTFS volumes, file fragments larger than 64MB are not included
> in t
> he fragmentation statistics
>
> You do not need to defragment this volume.

You can still email me.
There's a chance that it will repro anyway, since it looks like your system
was possibly never horribly fragmented anyway


"warder" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
newsED8E792-3C84-420E-89FF-(E-Mail Removed)...
>I guess it will be a while before I see it again... no defrag now required.
>
> No issue during that analysis though.
>
>
> Microsoft Windows [Version 6.0.6000]
> Copyright (c) 2006 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
>
> C:\Windows\system32>defrag /a /v c:
> Windows Disk Defragmenter
> Copyright (c) 2006 Microsoft Corp.
>
> Analysis report for volume C: C Drive
>
> Volume size = 89.03 GB
> Cluster size = 4 KB
> Used space = 72.22 GB
> Free space = 16.82 GB
> Percent free space = 18 %
>
> File fragmentation
> Percent file fragmentation = 0 %
> Total movable files = 155,072
> Average file size = 558 KB
> Total fragmented files = 29
> Total excess fragments = 167
> Average fragments per file = 1.00
> Total unmovable files = 70
>
> Free space fragmentation
> Free space = 16.82 GB
> Total free space extent = 16,319
> Average free space per extent = 1 MB
> Largest free space extent = 1.90 GB
>
> Folder fragmentation
> Total folders = 17,465
> Fragmented folders = 1
> Excess folder fragments = 0
>
> Master File Table (MFT) fragmentation
> Total MFT size = 217 MB
> MFT record count = 155,402
> Percent MFT in use = 69
> Total MFT fragments = 3
>
> Note: On NTFS volumes, file fragments larger than 64MB are not included
> in t
> he fragmentation statistics
>
> You do not need to defragment this volume.

Don't worry about that. There is so much sh_t on this group it is already
pretty clogged up.


"Victoria House [MSFT]" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:8423DC68-43D7-4BEC-8C20-(E-Mail Removed)...
> Warder,
> email me and we'll take this offline to stop clogging up the group. My
> email is what you see in the newsgroup without the "online".
>
>
>
> -Victoria
>
> "warder" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> newsED8E792-3C84-420E-89FF-(E-Mail Removed)...
>>I guess it will be a while before I see it again... no defrag now
>>required.
>>
>> No issue during that analysis though.
>>
>>
>> Microsoft Windows [Version 6.0.6000]
>> Copyright (c) 2006 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
>>
>> C:\Windows\system32>defrag /a /v c:
>> Windows Disk Defragmenter
>> Copyright (c) 2006 Microsoft Corp.
>>
>> Analysis report for volume C: C Drive
>>
>> Volume size = 89.03 GB
>> Cluster size = 4 KB
>> Used space = 72.22 GB
>> Free space = 16.82 GB
>> Percent free space = 18 %
>>
>> File fragmentation
>> Percent file fragmentation = 0 %
>> Total movable files = 155,072
>> Average file size = 558 KB
>> Total fragmented files = 29
>> Total excess fragments = 167
>> Average fragments per file = 1.00
>> Total unmovable files = 70
>>
>> Free space fragmentation
>> Free space = 16.82 GB
>> Total free space extent = 16,319
>> Average free space per extent = 1 MB
>> Largest free space extent = 1.90 GB
>>
>> Folder fragmentation
>> Total folders = 17,465
>> Fragmented folders = 1
>> Excess folder fragments = 0
>>
>> Master File Table (MFT) fragmentation
>> Total MFT size = 217 MB
>> MFT record count = 155,402
>> Percent MFT in use = 69
>> Total MFT fragments = 3
>>
>> Note: On NTFS volumes, file fragments larger than 64MB are not
>> included
>> in t
>> he fragmentation statistics
>>
>> You do not need to defragment this volume.
>

You may want to try a real defrag program - like Raxco PerfectDisk. Tell
them Roscoe sent you.


"warder" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:7FB55A7C-5BED-4760-AB9B-(E-Mail Removed)...
> Has anyone else noticed that when a Vista defrag is running, that your PC
> can
> entirely lock up for a period (on my PC it's about 3 minutes)?
>
> I believe that when the defrag program de-fragments the windows page file,
> or some other key system files, that the GUI basically stalls until the
> file
> is unlocked.
>
> The DWM continues to run and you can move windows around, but all
> processes
> become non-responsive. Basically all message queues are stalled.
>
> The drive rattles for ages and then the system comes back alive if you're
> patient.

Actually, Roscoe, I have to say that Raxco PerfectDisk is far superior for
defragmenting the hard drive. I find it even better than Diskeeper.

--
John Barnett MVP
Associate Expert
Windows Shell/User

Web: http://xphelpandsupport.mvps.org
Web: http://vistasupport.mvps.org

The information in this mail/post is supplied "as is". No warranty of any
kind, either expressed or implied, is made in relation to the accuracy,
reliability or content of this mail/post. The Author shall not be liable for
any direct, indirect, incidental or consequential damages arising out of the
use of, or inability to use, information or opinions expressed in this
mail/post..

"Roscoe" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:1FED775F-982F-4C24-9261-(E-Mail Removed)...
> You may want to try a real defrag program - like Raxco PerfectDisk. Tell
> them Roscoe sent you.
>
>
> "warder" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:7FB55A7C-5BED-4760-AB9B-(E-Mail Removed)...
>> Has anyone else noticed that when a Vista defrag is running, that your PC
>> can
>> entirely lock up for a period (on my PC it's about 3 minutes)?
>>
>> I believe that when the defrag program de-fragments the windows page
>> file,
>> or some other key system files, that the GUI basically stalls until the
>> file
>> is unlocked.
>>
>> The DWM continues to run and you can move windows around, but all
>> processes
>> become non-responsive. Basically all message queues are stalled.
>>
>> The drive rattles for ages and then the system comes back alive if you're
>> patient.
>