Disk defragmenter not finishing

[Guest]

When I run it, it will run some, not finishing completely, and then I get
this message: "Some files on this volume could not be fragmented. Please
check the defragmentation report for the list of these files."
When I look at the report there are no files in the list - that did not
defragment.

I don't know what causes this!

 

[Guest]

The Defragmenter will never completely defragment 100%.

 

[d01178]

You could try using a third party defragmenting tool and see if it works.

 

[Guest]

Sorry, I made a small mistake in my first message: I should have said
"Defragmentation is complete for: Big Dell (C
Some files on this volume could not be defragmented.
Please check the defragmentation report for the list of these files."

- that is DEFRAGMENTED instead of FRAGMENTED!

So you are saying that getting this message is NOT abnormal when running the
Disk defragmenter? Is that what you're saying? Please respond to let me
know this for sure and then I'll be relieved and will be thanking you very
much for your time. -lem

 

[Guest]

Try rebooting in safe mode with nothing else enabled than running it. What I
have found to be the case is that any TSR programs running i.e messenger,
anti-virus programs etc... won't allow the defragmenter to move those files
around.

If you start in safe mode with out loading those it will fully defrag the
drive.

Kyle Holgate

 

[d01178]

Yes its best to defragment in safe mode when using the built in, as any program writing to disk can interrupt defrag, while third party programs will do it in the background even while the system is functioning.

 

[Alan Smith]

It can't defragment the paging file.

There are utilities to do that if you want- try something like pagedefrag

http://www.sysinternals.com/Utilities/PageDefrag.html

 

[buRford]

When I run it, it will run some, not finishing completely, and then I get
this message: "Some files on this volume could not be fragmented. Please
check the defragmentation report for the list of these files."
When I look at the report there are no files in the list - that did not
defragment.

I don't know what causes this!

I've had the same problem a few times.
After a lot of trial and error, I found the problem... at least on my computer.
It's Metadata that isn't being defragmented.
Windows defrag would say I had a file with 6 fragments, after I defragged.
But when I looked at the list, like you, nothing was there.

Eventually, I tried PerfectDisk. After doing a PerfectDisk defrag in Windows, it would
report that the Metadata had 6 fragments. I did an offline defrag (at boot-up), and when
Windows re-opened, I opened PerfectDisk and those 6 fragments were gone.
Then I used Windows defrag, and it completed totally.

The thing I don't understand, is why it happens periodically. While at other times, even
with fragmented Metadata, Windows Defrag completes without saying it couldn't defrag some
files.
For me, this was the file that was giving me a problem:
Metadata file C:\$Extend\$UsnJrnl:$J 6 fragments