Hello:

I've noticed that when I defrag my PC using the built-in Windows ME defrag utility, there is still a residual ~10% fragmentation rate. I get this reading when I run the Disk Health test at PC PitSpot.

http://www.pcpitstop.com/


Could it be that this '"background fragmentation" is set to be so on purpose so as to allow for smoother functioning of the PC?

IOW: Is it so by design?

Or is this some weakness in the Windows defragmentation utility?

Thanks;

-eliuri

******************************

Windows ME

IE 6.0 SP1

Norton AntiVirus 2004

Norton Personal Firewall 2003

Spybot 1.4

AdAware SE 1.06

This post has been edited by eliuri: Jun 13 2005, 02:01 AM

You could try rebooting to safe mode to run disk defragmenter or go here for diskeeper lite, which will defragment the drive, and may also let the Windows defragmenter run afterwards

http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=1207

Hi eliuri



I don't really know how accurate Pc PitSpot is, but that kinda result doesn't surprise me. Some people run defrag twice because of that. Not a bad idea if you know your hard drive is badly fragmented; for example after deleting or uninstalling lots of large files, applications et al, or when performance is terrible.

Altho I think 10% is high, I usually defrag before I'm that fragmented. So I'd probably defrag twice and start defragging more often in the future.



Don't think so. Your Pc would run best with no fragmentation at all. Defrag will have a harder time if your Hard Drive is about full. The same is true for windows in general. If it is too full things will actually quit working.



Some third party defrag utilities claim to do a better job, run quicker et al. I've never tried any so I can't recommend a good replacement. But I doubt any would achieve perfect results on your typical computer. Some probably do a better job than windows. But I don't know if I would call it a weakness in the Windows utility. that would be some tricky code to write and they probably did as good of job as they could.

The next time you defrag try running ScanDisk in Ms-dos mode and do a full surface scan, and then run defrag twice (best in safe mode) and then test it at Pc Pitstop and see if this helps lower the percentage.

Hope this clears things up some.

For the last three years I had to defrag in safe mode ,because I could nver get past 50%
I think all the new software that is A L W A Y S running as well as screen saver running is causing defrag to sense change to the hard drive, and so It start again.

PcPitstop's tests are well respected and do work... if their tests say that is your defrag rate than it almost certainly is.

There are a few ways to get this lower, most which have already been mentioned:

1) Defrag in safe mode.
2) Defrag multiple times in a row.
3) Use a third party defragger like Diskkeeper Lite.

Thanks mpfeif.

I'll try running the defrag several times in Safe Mode.

This might be of interest:

I just purged the System restore cache, by disabling and then reenabling System Restore. I also lowered the max. size of the System Restore from ~1,200 Meg to ~800 Meg

Fragmentation rate went down automatically from 11% to 7% for Data Fragmentation.

File Fragmentation remained constant at 1%.

This change happened without my running any defrag utility at all!!!


-eliuri

This post has been edited by eliuri: Jun 13 2005, 08:00 PM