Defrag in XP Pro SPR

[Guest]

I have an XP Pro SP2 system with all current updates installed that always
says the primary partition needs to be defragged; even just after a defrag
has been run. There doesn't appear to be any fragmented files in the
analysis display. I have even loaded and run diskkeeper defrag - then
removed it, and Windows still says that it needs to be defragged.

???????

Dan

 

[Guest]

More info - system is an HP dc5700 business PC with a system restore
partition and a boot partition - both are NTFS - when analyzing each
partition, the restore partition shows that it does not need to be defragged,
but the boot partition always does.

 

[Gerry]

Dan

Comments in Disk Defragmenter as to whether a partition needs to be
defragmented are in my view frequently unreliable. What
does the report say in terms of numbers of fragmented files?

Volume WinXP (C
Volume size = 24.41 GB
Cluster size = 4 KB
Used space = 6.42 GB
Free space = 17.98 GB
Percent free space = 73 %

Volume fragmentation
Total fragmentation = 3 %
File fragmentation = 7 %
Free space fragmentation = 0 %

File fragmentation
Total files = 35,121
Average file size = 244 KB
Total fragmented files = 783
Total excess fragments = 3,057
Average fragments per file = 1.08

Pagefile fragmentation
Pagefile size = 1.13 GB
Total fragments = 1

Folder fragmentation
Total folders = 2,813
Fragmented folders = 14
Excess folder fragments = 16

Master File Table (MFT) fragmentation
Total MFT size = 40 MB
MFT record count = 37,995
Percent MFT in use = 92 %
Total MFT fragments = 2

This Report says 7% File Fragmentation or 783 Files. This may not seem a
high
proportion of the whole but leaving aside the large System Restore
points these
are the files I access most frequently. These are the files which if
fragmented will
slow me down. This partition has a lot of system files. If it is similar
on a partition
containing only data files it would have an even more marked impact on
system
performance.

 

[Guest]

Here is the report:
Vol Size - 66.52G
Cluster Size - 4k
Used Space - 8.43G
Free Space - 58.09G
% Free - 87%

Vol Fragmentation
Total - 17%
File Fragmentation - 35%
Total Fragmented Files - 8
Total Excess Fragments - 22
Average Fragments per File - 1

Page File - 2.98 G (system has 2 gig of ram)
Total Fragments - 2

Total Folders - 3147
Fragmented - 1
Excess Folder Fragments - 2

MFT Size - 31 MB
MFT Record Count - 31,329
% MFT in use - 99
Total MFT Fragments - 2

 

[Gerry]

Dan

Is this the Windows XP partition? It is strange that you only have 8
fragmented files
and yet have 35% file fragmentation!

Two suggestions.

Set the pagefile to Zero and restart the computer. Run Disk Defragmenter
and
then set the pagefile to a minimum of 3 gb and restart the computer. The
result
should be a nice green single unmovable contiguous block in the middle
of the
drive. This suggestion should work because you have such a large %
unused
disk space and does not work if you have anything approaching 50% used
space.

Unless you have changed the system restore setting from its default
setting
something like 8 gb is allocated for restore points. I would reduce the
allocation to 1 gb. I always run Disk CleanUp include System Restore
on the More Options tab before running Disk Defragmenter.


--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Guest]

Yes, it's the Windows partition.

Dan

Is this the Windows XP partition? It is strange that you only have 8
fragmented files
and yet have 35% file fragmentation!

Two suggestions.

Set the pagefile to Zero and restart the computer. Run Disk Defragmenter
and
then set the pagefile to a minimum of 3 gb and restart the computer. The
result
should be a nice green single unmovable contiguous block in the middle
of the
drive. This suggestion should work because you have such a large %
unused
disk space and does not work if you have anything approaching 50% used
space.

Unless you have changed the system restore setting from its default
setting
something like 8 gb is allocated for restore points. I would reduce the
allocation to 1 gb. I always run Disk CleanUp include System Restore
on the More Options tab before running Disk Defragmenter.


--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Guest]

Thanks Gerry,

Removing and restoring the the paging file did the trick!