Windows Disk Defrag not workig

[Guest]

So, im trying to once again run disk defrag. It hasnt worked in a couple
weeks. What happens is i start it up, it runs the "anailzing disk" part and i
can see my HD run for a min or so. But then it stops and thats it, i left my
computer alone for like 6hrs, and when i came back, it still said "anailzing
disk".

ANyone got any help on this. When i goto task mgr, i see it in there, but i
cant end the process, i have to reboot.

So what happened, why does it get stuck at the "anailzing disk" part and not
go any futher

thanks

 

[R. C. White, MVP]

Hi, tdawg.

Two questions:

1. How big and how full is the volume being defragged? (For a 300 GB
volume with millions of files, it might take longer than 6 hours.)

2. Is this the boot volume (typically Drive C? Defragging the working
volume (and the boot volume, where the \Windows folder resides, is always
working) has always taken longer because its files are constantly being
updated during the defrag process. In the olden days, we could not defrag
the boot volume at all because the process was continually restarting.
:>( To defrag that volume, we had to boot from a floppy or dual-boot into a
different Windows installation.

These may not be the factors in your situation, but if we know these
answers, we may be able to eliminate a couple of suspects.

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
(e-mail address removed)
Microsoft Windows MVP
(Running Windows Mail 7.0 in Vista Ultimate x64)

 

[Guest]

Hi, thanks for responding

no, the HD is only a 40gig drive and it is the main drive. I have sept
drives for eveyrthing else. I only use this drive for the windows and windows
programs.

Disk Defrag does start up, and it goes to analyzing disk. But thats it, it
doesnt do anything more after that. As stated, i left computer alone for
6hrs, and when i came back, the disk defrag STILL says analyzing disk

 

[Victoria House [MSFT]]

From the GUI, defrag will defrag _all_ of your volumes, not just C:. It
will also analyze _all_ volumes.
Since you say you get "analyzing disk" I am assuming you are using the UI.
I think that the UI is analyzing all of your disks, and quite possibly one
of the larger ones (not the 40gb) is causing the delay.

It is likely that the culprit would be the biggest volume with the most
data. Try a defrag <vol>: /a /v from the command line (administrative) for
an analysis of your "most likely" volume and see what you get.

OR

If you only want to defrag the sysvol (C?), then defrag sysvol: /v from the
command line (administrative).

Thanks
-Victoria

 

[Victoria House [MSFT]]

Currently the GUI you get from my computer->rt click c:->tools->defrag is
the same "all volumes" UI.
We've had lots of feedback on this before. Yours has been noted.

 

[Guest]

Ya, thanks. It did defrag my C drive like u said.... i think. WHen it
started, it said 2% fragmented. After it was done, it said 5%, lol. But
atleast i know how ot do it now

thanks

 

[Victoria House [MSFT]]

Bug was recently filed for that one. It's fixed for Server/SP1.
There's a lot of things that can frag you besides defrag though, so maybe it
was one of them.

Glad it's working for you.. or at least running. If you want to schedule C:
defrags, you can use task scheduler (We have tasks there that are used for
our ScheduledDefrag you could use as a model).

 

[mayor]

The Vista Defrag is another MS technological improvement don't you know, or
so Victoria said in an earlier post.

--
Leo

When I was young and adventurous, I wanted to join a violent,
armed group with no regard for the law, but the IRS wasn't hiring.

 

[Gerry Cornell]

Victoria

In Vista is it still advisable to run Disk CleanUp ( or Vista
equivalent ) before running Disk Defragmenter?


--

~~~~

Gerry

~~~~~~~~
Enquire, plan and execute.
Stourport, England
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Guest]

Simple really: dump the inbuilt defrag engine (which is very “basic†anyway,
to put it politely) and download ‘PerfectDisk 8’, a 180 day trial version
from Raxco that works great with Vista RTM!

Or wait for Executive Software to have their Vista compatible ‘Diskeeper’
ready in a few weeks – the best defragmentation engine around.

 

[Roy Coorne]

Simple really: dump the inbuilt defrag engine (which is very “basicâ€
anyway,
to put it politely) and download ‘PerfectDisk 8’, a 180 day trial
version
from Raxco that works great with Vista RTM!

Or wait for Executive Software to have their Vista compatible
‘Diskeeper’
ready in a few weeks – the best defragmentation engine around.

Or use the free http://www.auslogics.com/disk-defrag/


Roy

 

[MICHAEL]

Diskeeper 2007 for Vista is ready now.
However, there is no free trial download at
this moment.

http://www.diskeeper.com/diskeeper/solutions.asp
Diskeeper Corporation has announced Microsoft Windows Vistaâ„¢ platform support for the Diskeeper
2007 product line. It is a free update for licensed Diskeeper 2007 customers, as well as
customers with current maintenance contracts.

 

[Guest]

Did she call THAT an “improvement�? Wow, must have had a bad hair day ....

 

[mayor]

To me Victoria seemed upset that us mere users did not understand the
technological benefits of the 'new and improved' MS Defrag.

--
Leo

When I was young and adventurous, I wanted to join a violent,
armed group with no regard for the law, but the IRS wasn't hiring.

 

[Victoria House [MSFT]]

The only place I can immediately find CleanUp and Defrag in one article is
in this type of article:
http://www.microsoft.com/atwork/getstarted/speed.mspx

For many, temporary internet files and temporary program files will tend to
be more fragmented and take up space on the beginning of the disk and are
deleted periodically.
If defrag does its thing and then these files are deleted, there is a
somewhat greater chance that the next files to be written to disk will be
written fragmented. Disk CleanUp won't hurt anything, and since defrag
takes care of itself with scheduling you should be all right.

"is it still advisable"?
I don't know.
I think that running Disk CleanUp occasionally is a good idea. Running Disk
Defragmenter occasionally is also a good idea.
If I were running both in the same short time period, I'd run Disk CleanUp
first for a small degree fragmentation prevention.

-Victoria