Files that did not defragment....but why?

[Dubious Dude]

Every time I run a defrag, I get a slew of application data files that
They range in size from several megabytes to 500MB. I have lots of
free disk space: 18GB free, which is 62% of the 29GB hard drive. I
run the defrag as administrator in safe mode, and there are no
applications running to lock up the data files. Most of these files
are gzipped tar files, though there are some postscript files, the odd
pdf file, 2 *.exe files in the recycle bin, and even a MIF file.

I've googled more than just a few times, and have never found a
potential cause for these files to resist defragmenting. I wonder if
anyone can point to a document that could explain this for the
situation I described. I'm using NTFS on Windows 2000, and the files
that do not defragment are in a nonadministrator account. Thanks.

 

[Dubious Dude]

Excuse me. Typo corrected below.

Every time I run a defrag, I get a slew of application data files that

...that Do Not Defrag.

 

[Dan G]

Get Diskeeper 9

There's a bunch if file types that Windows defrag will not touch.

 

[Dubious Dude]

Get Diskeeper 9

There's a bunch if file types that Windows defrag will not touch.

Looks like an interesting package. I'm not really in a position to be
acquiring new software at the moment, however, so I'd like to
understand what the problem is with the existing defragger first;
specifically the reason why some files were not defragmented. I'm
sure it isn't due to the file type, because I have many files with
those extensions. They don't all have this problem.

 

[Dan G]

There can be lots of reasons why a specific file remains fragmented. The
Windows defrag (also made by Diskeeper), will not move directories, MFT or
system files or any kind. As a result, it may also not be possible to move
other files. It's also possible that the files simply don't need to be
defragmented for various reasons. The best think you can do to eliminate
fragmentation in the absence of a real defrag program is to set your paging
file for equal initial and max sizes. If you have been running with
different initial and max sizes for a while, you need to do a little dance
to deframent the paging file.

Set the paging file to 20MB and reboot. Now run defrag a couple times. Next
re-set the paging file to equal initial and max sizes and defrag again.

That's about all you can do, short of a fresh install.

 

[Dubious Dude]

There can be lots of reasons why a specific file remains fragmented. The
Windows defrag (also made by Diskeeper), will not move directories, MFT or
system files or any kind. As a result, it may also not be possible to move
other files. It's also possible that the files simply don't need to be
defragmented for various reasons. The best think you can do to eliminate
fragmentation in the absence of a real defrag program is to set your paging
file for equal initial and max sizes. If you have been running with
different initial and max sizes for a while, you need to do a little dance
to deframent the paging file.

Set the paging file to 20MB and reboot. Now run defrag a couple times. Next
re-set the paging file to equal initial and max sizes and defrag again.

That's about all you can do, short of a fresh install.

Thanks, for that, Dan. I'm going to save it and follow up with some
research.