defrag really slow, can't delete files either...

[George]

I'm using WinXP-pro, and have used defrag for many years, on both c:drives
and external drives, generally works great. But got this 100GB external
drive, I use it to backup my PC, now got some unusual things going on.

NO-CAN-DELETE
First, I couldn't delete one certain folder, let's call it F:\BACKUP20060810
(a copy of the PC's C:drive). I had to delete its subfolders one at a time,
but now that the parent folder is/appears empty, I still can't get rid of
it...the empty parent folder named F:\BACKUP20060810 won't delete. Says
access denied. Any suggestions?

SLOW MOVING FILES
I'm trying a defrag to see if it will help. Sure enough, there's red
(fragmented files) all over. But the defrag is going very slow, still at
3%. It's taking about 6 seconds each for things like...
Defragmenting... Moving file A00034435.dll
Defragmenting... Moving file msimsg.dll
Defragmenting... Moving file browseu.dll
What's going on here? (Even if defrag isn't answer to problem#1 above,
still would like to know what IS causing the slowness issue)

NOTE
A brief note... last nite I reached for this external drive, accidentally
unplugged the USB (it should be ok anyway since purpose of USB is hot
plug/unplug). It gave some kind of error message. Seemed ok after that.
Or, did something go wrong? Do I need to copy data off this backup hard
drive, re-format and start over, or is that unnecessary?

Thanks,
George

 

[Guest]

George,

In regard to the NO-CAN-DELETE problem, if the folder isn't read only, then
it may be caused by an open handle. Download the file at
http://www.sysinternals.com/Utilities/ProcessExplorer.html, extract it, run
it and go to 'Find' and search for the file or folder that can't be deleted
(i.e. BACKUP20060810). If it is found then click on the entry. In the bottom
of the main window and entry should be highlighted. Right click on this entry
and click on 'Close Handle'. Do this for all the entries found in the search
window. You should now be able to delete this file.

In regard to the SLOW MOVING FILES issue this could be caused by a number of
things. The basics:
A) Not enough space on the drive being defragmented (this shouldn't be a
problem in XP though because it normally won't let you defrag a drive that
has under 8% free space.
B) MAJOR Fragmentation - nothing can be done about this except for letting
the defragmenter run until it's finished.
C) Physical hard drive errors - you can check this by going to My Computer
and right clicking on the drive in question and choosing Properties. Go to
Tools and click on Check Now in Error Checking. Select the two options in the
window. If it finds errors it will make an attempt to fix the errors and/or
retrieve data from the damaged sector.

About the USB cable being unplugged - the drive will be fine, but you may
have to retransfer any data that was being transferred at the time because it
wouldn't have been transferred to the external drive.