Defrag hardly works

[Neil W]

I am trying to defragment the hard drive (XP pro with all the latest
patches). I have run it several times but it barely has any affect on
fragmentation at all. I have tried all the recommended techiques -
specifying no paging file, disabling system restore, booting into safe mode
so as few programs as possible are started. However, none of this seems to
work. Any tips? Are there any third party defragmenters that work? Thanks.

 

[Jose Francisco]

Greetings,

Windows Defragment should improve your system perfomance and memory. All it
does it just put everything organized together. You can also try scanning
for any spyware or adware on your system. Here's some information on what to
do:

http://users.onvol.net/118226-2/xpez/articles/remove_spyware.html

"Try these programs to check for any spyware that may be on your system:

Ad-Aware - www.lavasoftusa.com
Spybot - http://www.safer-networking.org/
CWShredder - http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/downloads.html

Try SpyWareBlaster to stop intrusions:

http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html

Also see the following links:

http://mvps.org/winhelp2002/unwanted.htm
http://www.microsoft.com/security/articles/spyware.asp"



Thanks and best of luck!

 

[Neil W]

Thanks - but I was hoping for a more on-topic reply.

--------------------------------------------

 

[Gerry Cornell]

Neil

The amount of free space is very important when running Disk Defragmenter. A
minimum of 15% is required but sometimes 20% is desirable if the drive /
partition
contains one or more large files. You can run Disk Defragmenter a second and
third
time if files are still fragmented after the first run. You can put files
more prone to
fragment in their own partitions.

If you use Outlook Express regularly compacting Outlook Express before
running
Disk Defragmenter is helpful.

Disk Defragmenter provides a "Most fragmented files" list. When a fragmented
file is
larger than the largest pocket of free space available then the files is not
fragmented.
Running Disk Defragmenter a second or third time does move files around and
can
reduce / eliminate the contents of the "Most fragmented files" list. The
more free
space on the drive / partition, the more likely it is that all fragments
will be
eliminated.

Free space cannot be defragmented with the Windows XP Disk Defragmenter.
Neither can your pagefile cannot be defragmented because the file is in use
whilst
Disk Defragmenter is running. You can purchase other Defragmenting Utilities
e.g.
Perfect Disk, which will defragment your pagefile and free space. Another
option is to
place your pagefile in it's own partition. A pagefile partition is best
located as the first
partition on a second hard drive. You should leave a small page file at the
original
location.
http://www.raxco.com/

Is your problem fragmentation or slow performance for other reasons?

~~~~~~


Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
FCA

Stourport, Worcs, England
Enquire, plan and execute.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Larry H]

Just a thought; How many user accounts are on the
computer and what are they? I know that IE Explorer has
it's own cache for each user and therefore, each has to
delete and defrag thier own. Same with many other apps.
Good Luck. P.S. Be sure to check each users IE setting.
The default cache size is insane.

 

[Guest]

.... forgot - check the drive for errors.

 

[Jym]

When you run analyze , are you prompted that volume needs defragging ?
Do you run error checking and disk cleanup prior to defragging ? Do you
have 15% free space on the drive ? Jym