Vista defrag

[Guest]

I just want to say that I don't know what Microsoft was thinking when they
changed the defrag program. You can't specify a drive, the type of defrag
(quick or intensive), or anything, or even view a progress bar. Anyone else
feel the same?

 

[dev]

/cpu_expert/ said:

I just want to say that I don't know what Microsoft was thinking when they
changed the defrag program. You can't specify a drive, the type of defrag
(quick or intensive), or anything, or even view a progress bar. Anyone else
feel the same?

In Windows Explorer, right-click a drive letter and then click PROPERTIES.
Click the TOOLS tab and note the choices.

 

[Rock]

I just want to say that I don't know what Microsoft was thinking when they
changed the defrag program. You can't specify a drive, the type of defrag
(quick or intensive), or anything, or even view a progress bar. Anyone
else
feel the same?

You can choose a particular volume by running defrag from an elevated
command prompt. You can also query the from there the extent of
fragmentation. There is no progress indicator however.

From and elevated command prompt do
defrag /? to see the various options.

This issue has been discussed in depth in one or more of the Vista
newsgroups. Do a Google Groups Advanced search on
microsoft.public.windows.vista.* searching for defrag. I believe some of
these discussions were in this newsgroup and in
microsoft.public.windows.vista.performance_maintenance.

http://groups.google.com/advanced_search?q=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en

If you want to see a graphical representation then use a 3rd party
defragmenter such as PerfectDisk or Diskeeper (others should offer up their
recommendations). Personally I don't think they are worth the money. Set
the Vista defrag to run once a week when the computer is not other wise
being used (that's the default setting) and don't worry about it. One less
manual task to occupy yourself with.

 

[Alfred Lorona]

I just want to say that I don't know what Microsoft was thinking when they
changed the defrag program. You can't specify a drive, the type of defrag
(quick or intensive), or anything, or even view a progress bar. Anyone
else
feel the same?

Yes. Vista's de-frag sucks for the reasons you indicate. I don't know if I
have time to go for a walk around the block because a progress bar is at 50
percent or wait a minute for that last 1/8 th inch travel on a progress
bar.

 

[Mike Brannigan]

I just want to say that I don't know what Microsoft was thinking when they
changed the defrag program. You can't specify a drive, the type of defrag
(quick or intensive), or anything, or even view a progress bar. Anyone
else
feel the same?

Have you actually even looked at the command line options ? (obviously not)
So YES you can specify the drive to be defragged, and yes you can choose
either partial (quick) or full (intensive), plus all the options for verbose
output etc etc

Syntax: defrag <volume> -a [-v]
defrag <volume> [{-r | -w}] [-f] [-v]
defrag -c [{-r | -w}] [-f] [-v]

Parameters:

Value Description

<volume> Specifies the drive letter or mount point path of the volume
to
be defragmented or analyzed.

-c Defragments all volumes on this computer.

-a Performs fragmentation analysis only.

-r Performs partial defragmentation (default). Attempts to
consolidate only fragments smaller than 64 megabytes (MB).

-w Performs full defragmentation. Attempts to consolidate all
file
fragments, regardless of their size.

-f Forces defragmentation of the volume when free space is low.

-v Specifies verbose mode. The defragmentation and analysis
output
is more detailed.

-? Displays this help information.

 

[Steve Thackery]

Yes. Vista's de-frag sucks for the reasons you indicate. I don't know if I

have time to go for a walk around the block because a progress bar is at
50 percent or wait a minute for that last 1/8 th inch travel on a
progress bar.

This is so weird. What kind of person obsesses about these things? Just
let Vista defrag itself once a week automatically, as it will out of the
box, and find something more fulfilling to do with your time. Like actually
using the computer.

Steve

 

[Rock]

This is so weird. What kind of person obsesses about these things? Just
let Vista defrag itself once a week automatically, as it will out of the
box, and find something more fulfilling to do with your time. Like
actually using the computer.

Such heresy. Watching the GUI blocks shake, wiggle and move is mesmerizing.

 

[Mark Rae]

What kind of person obsesses about these things?

I think we all know the answer to that one...

 

[DP]

/cpu_expert/ said:


In Windows Explorer, right-click a drive letter and then click PROPERTIES.
Click the TOOLS tab and note the choices.

As far as I can tell, that doesn't let you specify the drive to be
defragged. It does them all, even though you got to that point by clicking
on a specific drive.
I use the command prompt to defrag specific drives.

 

[Michael Gossett]

Defrag a week = dead drive! Drives are not meant to be read/written to
that much every week. Drive failure would be 3x quicker, I think there was a
document on how Vista causes hard drives to die quicker.

 

[DevilsPGD]

In message <[email protected]> "Michael Gossett"

Defrag a week = dead drive! Drives are not meant to be read/written to
that much every week. Drive failure would be 3x quicker, I think there was a
document on how Vista causes hard drives to die quicker.

Good theory, except that the existing documentation indicates otherwise.
Take a look at Google's hard drive longevity report.

 

[DP]

Who said anything about defragging every week?

Defrag a week = dead drive! Drives are not meant to be read/written to
that much every week. Drive failure would be 3x quicker, I think there was
a document on how Vista causes hard drives to die quicker.

 

[Bob Hansen]

I guess I'm curious to know if there is any way in Vista to find out the
extent to which the drive is fragmented. XP used to show a percentage of
fragmentation. Mine (Vista) was set by default to defragment once a week.
Seems like a lot to me.

 

[Richard]

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I guess I'm curious to know if there is any way in Vista to find out the
extent to which the drive is fragmented. XP used to show a percentage of
fragmentation. Mine (Vista) was set by default to defragment once a
week. Seems like a lot to me.

Its a basic defrag program anyway.
I'd go for PerfectDisk anytime.


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[Rock]

I guess I'm curious to know if there is any way in Vista to find out the
extent to which the drive is fragmented. XP used to show a percentage of
fragmentation. Mine (Vista) was set by default to defragment once a week.
Seems like a lot to me.

<snip>

Yes, using the command line tool, defrag. From and elevated command prompt
do defrag /? to see all the options. For an analysis if the drive the
command is:
defrag <volume> -a

Or for verbose mode:
defrag <volume> -a -v