Vista Defragment Tool

[Shane Milward]

I have been using Vista since the Beta version and extremely happy, one
question which I've been meaning to ask for a long time is regarding the
Disk Defragmentation tool.

When I go to defrag, it doesn't give the defrag details 'or' am I missing an
option whereas in XP you can view the progress, all I see is a message with
it saying this may take up to several hours etc...

Is there a way to view the defrag status or even analyze? I'm using Home
Premium.

Many thanks

Shane

 

[Tiberius]

here is the information I posted in this newsgroup a few days ago,
it addresses this problem and provides a solution:

Subject: Free disk defrag for Vista with visual feedback

http://www.auslogics.com/disk-defrag/

Why use this?
1)Vista instead of improving the defrag interface, it removed it all!!! Now
you stare at a throbber
going round and round.. with no clue of the progress or when it will end, or
how much your HDD has fragmented.

2) Vistas Defrag runs as a service...
ARGGGG Horrible idea! I knew programs that added a defrag service and
avoided them like the plague for this reason: They thrash your disk and you
don't know if something strange is going on on your pc or if its the defrag
working. Also services running in the background use up resources.
I personally disable the defrag service. If you are a poweruser I am sure
you want control over your computer.

and finally Vista should have had an OPTIONAL upgraded version of the NTFS
system that would never need Defrag in the first place.
This is possible with linux filesystems... even though some vistaboys will
never believe it and ask for whitepapers.

MS had 5 years to do this... but guess what? Its easier for them to slap in
a service thrashing your disk all the time,
than make a better OS!

 

[Dave]

Nope, it runs in the background, so there's no way to watch it.

If you like to see the pretty blocks, Auslogics has a free defrag
program...
http://www.auslogics.com/disk-defrag/index.php

 

[Tiberius]

visual feedback is not pretty blocks. It is a very important necessity.

If you disagree, try using your computer with your monitor turned off next
time.

No reason to use it with "pretty windows" heh?

 

[Daze N. Knights]

LOL !

visual feedback is not pretty blocks. It is a very important necessity.

If you disagree, try using your computer with your monitor turned off next
time.

No reason to use it with "pretty windows" heh?

 

[Frank]

visual feedback is not pretty blocks. It is a very important necessity.

If you disagree, try using your computer with your monitor turned off next
time.

No reason to use it with "pretty windows" heh?

That's by far your dumbest analogy yet!
But who knows what the future holds.
Frank

 

[Shane Milward]

I totally agree Tiberius! Well said.

LOL !

 

[Jill Zoeller [MSFT]]

Shane, you might be interested in the reasons behind the UI changes in
Defrag. You can read more at
http://blogs.technet.com/filecab/pages/disk-defragmenter-faq.aspx. As you've
read here, not everyone agrees with these changes. At the same time, there
are many, many Vista users who have no idea what defrag means and yet their
hard drives are being defragged automatically. If you want to free up some
of your time to do other things, you can let the defrag occur on its own and
not worry about its progress. I personally like to nap on the couch while my
laptop defrags but you could watch a movie or read a book if you'd like

If watching defrag progress is important to you, then try a third-party
defragger.

 

[Frank]

Shane, you might be interested in the reasons behind the UI changes in
Defrag. You can read more at
http://blogs.technet.com/filecab/pages/disk-defragmenter-faq.aspx. As
you've read here, not everyone agrees with these changes. At the same
time, there are many, many Vista users who have no idea what defrag
means and yet their hard drives are being defragged automatically. If
you want to free up some of your time to do other things, you can let
the defrag occur on its own and not worry about its progress. I
personally like to nap on the couch while my laptop defrags but you
could watch a movie or read a book if you'd like

If watching defrag progress is important to you, then try a third-party
defragger.

Good, factual info.
Thanks Jill.
Frank

 

[notaguru]

Thanks, Jill.
I read the reference, looked around a little, and decided to
leave defrag to Vista. There are many things from my PDP-11 days
that I no longer have to do - defrag is just one more that's
been automated.

Good info from a trusted source.

 

[Tiberius]

Jill MSFT should listen to the people and try to please them, or else they
will have problems.

Vista could have had the feature rich defrag hidden and invoked by an
advanced button.
THIS is the correct way to do it if you want everyone happy.
This was easy to do... and should have been done.

I have read all that.. what it seems to me is like someone trying to
persuade himself that the design is good
and has reasons... Take a look around... There are lots of people that hate
this and don't like less options.

And indeed if you want to simplify and create less useless visuals, why do
you have flip 3d?
Vista is full of contradictions and this is one more of them.

 

[Tiberius]

before you go along saying that you "cannot make everyone happy"

I suggest you rethink thats a destructive idea, a false paradigm.
Intelligent people can make flexible systems
that can make almost everyone happy.

 

[Frank]

Jill MSFT should listen to the people and try to please them, or else they
will have problems.

Your personal opinion.

Vista could have had the feature rich defrag hidden and invoked by an
advanced button.
THIS is the correct way to do it if you want everyone happy.
This was easy to do... and should have been done.

Your personal opinion. Most others don't agree or don't EVEN CARE!!!

I have read all that.. what it seems to me is like someone trying to
persuade himself that the design is good
and has reasons... Take a look around... There are lots of people that hate
this and don't like less options.

Only a few are just like you! Can you count?

And indeed if you want to simplify and create less useless visuals, why do
you have flip 3d?

What the hell does that have tyo do with defrag???

Vista is full of contradictions and this is one more of them.

No it isn't. Don't you think it's time for you to move on and get a real
life?
Frank

 

[Frank]

Tiberius wrote:

Intelligent people can make flexible systems that can make almost
everyone happy.

Dud...you're just now realizing that fact?
Get out of your moms basement. There is sunlight outside and it won't
melt you.
Frank

 

[Adam Albright]

Your personal opinion.

Your opinion is something other than personal?

Your personal opinion. Most others don't agree or don't EVEN CARE!!!

Anybody that cares what Frank "thinks" please raise your hands.

You see Frankie, you're such a putz, but are too dumb to realize it.

How's that MLM chain letter scam of yours going? You know, you're
claimed marketing "business" you run off your kitchen table.

 

[Milhouse Van Houten]

I'd be interested in what you have to say about Vista's defrag speed versus
XP's. Is it supposed to be as fast? I'm finding on a volume by volume basis
that it's notably slower.

 

[Shane Milward]

I can't believe how so many people are so helpful here and then you always
get an oddball like Frank to ruin it all for everyone, if you got a problem
with people's advice, deal with it somewhere else...

Shane

 

[Shane Milward]

I'd be interested in what you have to say about Vista's defrag speed

versus XP's. Is it supposed to be as fast? I'm finding on a volume by
volume basis that it's notably slower.

Yes I think I agree, I've had a new vista laptop about a week and haven't
moved, copied or installed too many files thus the defrag shouldn't be a
long process really, but it seemed to be ages...
A lot longer than my other systems running XP or so it seemed. The Auslogics
Defrag tool seems very good as suggested so I'm going to stick with that I
think.


Shane

 

[notaguru]

Yes I think I agree, I've had a new vista laptop about a week and
haven't moved, copied or installed too many files thus the defrag
shouldn't be a long process really, but it seemed to be ages...
A lot longer than my other systems running XP or so it seemed. The
Auslogics Defrag tool seems very good as suggested so I'm going to stick
with that I think.


Shane

Apparently the Vista tool was designed to run quietly, and using
minimum resources, in the background. Speed is unimportant if
defrag is virtually a constant process, and fragmentation at any
given moment is minimal. Is it?

Based on reviews and comments the Auslogics tool seems
excellent, but if Vista does the job I'll stick with it.

 

[Jill Zoeller [MSFT]]

As notaguru said, the defrag in Vista wasn't designed to be super fast. If
it were super fast, your system would likely be unusable while Defrag is
running. This is one of the reasons why people were so trained to start XP
defrag and then walk away for the computer. I mean, who here hasn't started
XP's defrag on their work computer and then went home for the evening? Or
started XP Defrag at home before going to bed? With Vista, the automatic
defrag runs while the computer is not in use and will stop if you start
using the computer. If you choose to run Defrag manually, it runs as low
priority and shouldn't interfere with your use of the computer. Yes, the
tradeoff is that defrag takes longer, but if you aren't using the computer
anyway, who cares? And over time the system stays in a relatively
defragmented state so that when defrag does run, the process finishes
sooner.

That being said, I know we are working on performance improvements for
Defrag.


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