Defrag status/progress information

[VistaNewbie]

Is there a way to perform an analysis of the fragmentation level of a drive
in Vista Home Premium? I miss being able to see a graphic representation of
a disk's fragmentation. Also, previous versions of Windows provided the
user a progress bar than informed them of the status of the defrag program
when it was running. It appears that Home Premium runs in the background
and one never gets a "defragmentation complete" dialog box with options to
see a report. I've tried running it manually and not closing the Run dialog
box, but it seems to run for hours without any feedback to the user.

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

Is there a way to perform an analysis of the fragmentation level of a
drive in Vista Home Premium? I miss being able to see a graphic
representation of a disk's fragmentation. Also, previous versions of
Windows provided the user a progress bar than informed them of the status
of the defrag program when it was running. It appears that Home Premium
runs in the background and one never gets a "defragmentation complete"
dialog box with options to see a report. I've tried running it manually
and not closing the Run dialog box, but it seems to run for hours without
any feedback to the user.

The previous versions were based on a Diskeeper engine. The Vista defrag is
a fresh start by the Vista team and does not inherit any features. A
progress indicator is still a future project along with other requested
features. I use Diskeeper and recommend that or PerfectDisk.

 

[Gordon]

Also, previous versions of Windows provided the user a progress bar than
informed them of the status of the defrag program when it was running.

Like watching paint dry as well, do you?

 

[Mark L. Ferguson]

Whatever defragmentation might be needed on your system is either
non-existent, or in the process of becoming that. Watching it happen is moot
to it's operation. Nothing you can do would either make it happen worse, or
better, and knowing it's state would leave you powerless to make any
decision based on that. Get over it, it's not a factor relevant. or of any
consequence to your decisions about the system. It would be like adding a
tachometer to a car with automatic transmission.

 

[Charlie42]

Is there a way to perform an analysis of the fragmentation level of a
drive
in Vista Home Premium? I miss being able to see a graphic
representation of a disk's fragmentation. Also, previous versions of
Windows provided the user a progress bar than informed them of the
status of the defrag program when it was running. <snip>

You can use the command line version of the defragmenter instead. It
provides you with status reports both initially and upon completion. Use the
"v" parameter for detailed reports.

Open up a command prompt as administrator (Accessories menu > right-click
the Command prompt icon, select Run as Administrator). At the prompt, type:

defrag -v

Sadly, it will not show you any progression meter. But then again, the
graphical representation in WinXP was rather meaningless, as it did not
provide any accurate time estimates.

Charlie42

 

[VistaNewbie]

The previous versions were based on a Diskeeper engine. The Vista defrag
is a fresh start by the Vista team and does not inherit any features. A
progress indicator is still a future project along with other requested
features. I use Diskeeper and recommend that or PerfectDisk.

Thanks.

I had a Lenovo Vista Business laptop that shipped with DiskKeeper. Not sure
if it was part of Vista Business or if it was a separate program bundled by
Lenovo with its laptops.

Contrary to some of the other replies I received, no, I don't sit in front
of the computer and stare at the graphics like watching paint dry. My
interest was merely to determine whether the disks are fragmented and, if
so, to what degree. Just another diagnostic tool when trouble shooting a
sluggish computer.

 

[Steve Thackery]

I agree with Mark L. Ferguson: in Vista you do NOT need to worry about disk
fragmentation, because the defrag runs automatically as a low priority
background process for as long as it takes to do the job.

Just forget all about it, and get on with using your computer for something
useful.

STeveT

 

[PaulB]

If you want to see analysis of the Vista defrag, open a command prompt as
administrator (right click on the command prompt icon and select "run as
administrator") The type defrag c: -a -v. (c: or whatever drive).
To see the list of defrag options type defrag /?.

 

[VistaNewbie]

If you want to see analysis of the Vista defrag, open a command prompt as
administrator (right click on the command prompt icon and select "run as
administrator") The type defrag c: -a -v. (c: or whatever drive).
To see the list of defrag options type defrag /?.

Thank you.

 

[yolita]

Is there a way to perform an analysis of the fragmentation level of a drive
in Vista Home Premium? I miss being able to see a graphic representation of
a disk's fragmentation. Also, previous versions of Windows provided the
user a progress bar than informed them of the status of the defrag program
when it was running. It appears that Home Premium runs in the background
and one never gets a "defragmentation complete" dialog box with options to
see a report. I've tried running it manually and not closing the Run dialog
box, but it seems to run for hours without any feedback to the user.

 

[Hobbes]

command prompt...run as admin...defrag c: -v will give an
analysis...tho not graphical.

 

[DenniSys]

Whatever defragmentation might be needed on your system is either
non-existent, or in the process of becoming that. Watching it happen is moot
to it's operation.

I just wiped several GB, and would like some indicator, more like the old
DOS display rather than the simple progress bar, of what the system is doing
and how long it might take. Watching startup command echos, initialization
failure messages, startup sequence scripting, and sculpting the registry
database are also intelligent activities. It's only moot if you don't
understand it. The more you know.

 

[Gordon]

I just wiped several GB, and would like some indicator, more like the old
DOS display rather than the simple progress bar, of what the system is
doing
and how long it might take. Watching startup command echos, initialization
failure messages, startup sequence scripting, and sculpting the registry
database are also intelligent activities. It's only moot if you don't
understand it. The more you know.

Do you actually do any WORK with your machine?

 

[DenniSys]

Do you actually do any WORK with your machine?

Yes.

A virtual multi-tasking system with multiple processors doesn't have a
problem running multiple applications. Why not have multiple services
profiles available or selectable for the different phases of operations such
as startup (initialization), processing, no-processing, performance tuning,
and shutdown.

Why not redesign processors from scratch, removing circuits that are no
longer useful, rather than simply adding to an already incomprehensible mess?

The paradigm of how legacy systems (and protocols) are supported at the
expense of new machine technology should be scratched and re-designed.

The argument that, "It's too expensive." is a false argument. Additionally,
marketing follows technology. Do technology right, and marketing will follow.

It's good to have a brain.