[happyrock]

download and run PageDefrag (should I run it in Safe Mode

nope...it will run at boot just before loading windows

if jkDefrag takes more than a hour to defrag your drive...replace it

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My computer is a little slow, so I ran Vipre and it's not finding any viruses. I have about 25% free space of 60GB on my :C hard drive partition where the defrag is not working (running too quickly and not defragging much). I have about the same free space of 60GB on my :E partition for Data and My Documents folder where defrag is working OK. I have 512MB Ram with XP SP3 installed. I'm running Pentium 4 at about 2.8GHz.


I'm wondering if I should be running the Windows Disk Cleaner in any special configuration before running either defragger? During my earlier search for a solution to my problem I did see recommendations for others with a defragmenting problem that ran very long but didn't defragment (my problem runs quickly but doesn't defrag) including ATF Cleaner and TFC by Oldtimer. Not sure if I need any of these. Also I saw Diskeeper Lite recommended, but probably for a different kind of a problem related to defragging.

Since my Windows Disk Defragger ran for me for years on the :C partition, should I be trying to figure out why it's not running now before going to either of the defraggers you guys are recommending?

Sorry for being so long winded, but I want to make sure we make appropriate considerations before getting into an unrecoverable situation.

Thanks again for your help,
Mac2011

It looks like you have gotten a lot of good advice so far, so here is my 2¢ worth:

Some of the files that have been mentioned are system files which can't be defragmented while windows is running -- these require a boot time defrag.

There are many free defragmenters around and you have been given some fine recommendations but these all have various limitations.

As far as defrag goes, I always recommend a good paid-for program as they are simply more robust and tend to be fully automatic. Some of the better ones will defrag while the computer is in use (the best ones being completely transparent) and the best of the best will actually prevent fragmentation.

Everybody has their favorite defrag program (free or paid for), so here is a recent Top 10 Reviews side-by-side comparison of the best defrag programs around:

http://disk-defragme...tenreviews.com/

I recommend you read the reviews for each of the top placers (click on the product's image and you'll get a detailed review of each one, why it placed where it did, etc.)

Most of the better ones offer free trials so you can try each out and see what it actually does for your system.

All of the top placers will defrag system files and use little resources so you can run them while the PC is in use (the gold medalist won because its defrag was virtually undetectable even while the PC was being used with several programs open and it is the only program that prevents fragmentation before it occurs -- see the review for details).

This way you can see what you're getting and you'll have your own opinion on the matter.
..

PS: You may also want to get CCleaner, a free utility to handle your registry and junk files. This will also speed up your PC. I recommend you run it before doing a defrag (or if you get an automatic defrag program, then run CCleaner once a week or whenever you want to give your PC a performance boost).

..

You can get it at http://download.cnet.com/ccleaner/

[Bill R TechSpec]

My computer is a little slow, so I ran Vipre and it's not finding any viruses. I have about 25% free space of 60GB on my :C hard drive partition where the defrag is not working (running too quickly and not defragging much). I have about the same free space of 60GB on my :E partition for Data and My Documents folder where defrag is working OK. I have 512MB Ram with XP SP3 installed. I'm running Pentium 4 at about 2.8GHz.


I'm wondering if I should be running the Windows Disk Cleaner in any special configuration before running either defragger? During my earlier search for a solution to my problem I did see recommendations for others with a defragmenting problem that ran very long but didn't defragment (my problem runs quickly but doesn't defrag) including ATF Cleaner and TFC by Oldtimer. Not sure if I need any of these. Also I saw Diskeeper Lite recommended, but probably for a different kind of a problem related to defragging.

Since my Windows Disk Defragger ran for me for years on the :C partition, should I be trying to figure out why it's not running now before going to either of the defraggers you guys are recommending?

Sorry for being so long winded, but I want to make sure we make appropriate considerations before getting into an unrecoverable situation.

Thanks again for your help,
Mac2011

It looks like you have gotten a lot of good advice so far, so here is my 2¢ worth:

Some of the files that have been mentioned are system files which can't be defragmented while windows is running -- these require a boot time defrag.

There are many free defragmenters around and you have been given some fine recommendations but these all have various limitations.

As far as defrag goes, I always recommend a good paid-for program as they are simply more robust and tend to be fully automatic. Some of the better ones will defrag while the computer is in use (the best ones being completely transparent) and the best of the best will actually prevent fragmentation.

Everybody has their favorite defrag program (free or paid for), so here is a recent Top 10 Reviews side-by-side comparison of the best defrag programs around:

http://disk-defragme...tenreviews.com/

I recommend you read the reviews for each of the top placers (click on the product's image and you'll get a detailed review of each one, why it placed where it did, etc.)

Most of the better ones offer free trials so you can try each out and see what it actually does for your system.

All of the top placers will defrag system files and use little resources so you can run them while the PC is in use (the gold medalist won because its defrag was virtually undetectable even while the PC was being used with several programs open and it is the only program that prevents fragmentation before it occurs -- see the review for details).

This way you can see what you're getting and you'll have your own opinion on the matter.
..

PS: You may also want to get CCleaner, a free utility to handle your registry and junk files. This will also speed up your PC. I recommend you run it before doing a defrag (or if you get an automatic defrag program, then run CCleaner once a week or whenever you want to give your PC a performance boost).

..

You can get it at http://download.cnet.com/ccleaner/

[Troy]

if jkDefrag takes more than a hour to defrag your drive...replace it

This doesn't sound right from my experience. If the system has not been defragged regularly, especially not with JkDefrag, then usually it can take quite a while for the first full defragment to run. It depends on how much data is on the drive also. And also how many hard drives are in the system, JkDefrag will automatically defrag all of them unless specified otherwise using the command prompt version.

I have seen a few 1TB drive systems with about 80% usage or so take overnight to defrag properly the first time. And then once it's finished, reboot the computer and wow, the speed is noticeably improved.

[happyrock]

while I completely agree that the first time defrag can take a few hours...11 hours is slower than windows built in defragger

next time try Auslogics Disk Defrag here...

[Troy]

Yes but built in Windows Defrag is not nearly as efficient. The actual defrag process will run the full "suite" unless you specify otherwise from the command line. Analyze, defrag, optimise, on each logical drive.

The only reason I continue to recommend JkDefrag is because of the sheer simplicity. No program to install, just click and run. For most users here, and especially for me on the job, it takes no time to setup and there's nothing to uninstall later if you don't want it there any longer.

[bubblebubble]

You should download a free trial of diskeeper home edition from their website diskeeper.com. It is by far the best and most advanced defragger around. Very fast and very nice display too.

[noknojon]

Hi again -
Maybe you should try removing all your junk first, then defrag.
Open I.Explorer > Tools drop down menu > select the top item, Delete Browsing History (tick the top 4 boxes), Next > Accessories > System Tools > Run Disk Cleanup .
Then it may be a good idea to download ATF Cleaner (by Atribune) to your desktop > Double click on the icon > Run > Select all > Empty selected > OK > Exit, and this will remove a lot of temp files.
Once you have removed more of these temp files it will make the job easier for you to defrag.
Just a few more tips that you may (or may not) choose to use.

Thank You.

Edited by noknojon, 26 May 2011 - 07:43 PM.

[Mac2011]

Hi Guys,

Thanks again for all the suggestions.

I'm hoping with this post to clear up some confusion with jkDefrag hanging-up.

Since I posted last, I’ve downloaded and run PageDefrag(thanks devper94, happyrock) at bootup with the great results that 15743 original pagefile fragments were reduced to 2 fragments in 5 minutes.

In addition I’ve run jkDefrag a second time, but stopped it after 1 hour of operation. My :C Drive has 38GBytes of used and 17GBytes free of a total of 57GBytes. After one hour only 47% was defragged our of 68% of the used part of the drive and still optimizations needed to be performed. I stopped it because it hung up on file :C\Program Files\Microsoft AntiSpyware\error.log only completing 0.86% of the defrag during the last 30 minutes on that file. In the previous 30 minutes it had been defragging at a rate of 1% per minute. This file hang up might be why my original jkDefrag defrag took 11 hours.

Next, I downloaded and ran PerfectDisk 11 Trial and it defragged my :C Drive in about 45 minutes. Since PerfectDisk has the capability to defrag the system files and the pagefile at boot-time, I decided to try it. It hung on the same file as jkDefrag did, namely ":C\Program Files\Microsoft AntiSpyware\error.log" for about 8 hours overnight. I don't know why this file even exists on my computer because I deleted the program back in 2005. At the suggestion of PerfectDisk support and since I no longer use the program that the file belongs to I deleted it and PerfectDisk boot-time defrag ran to completion in 6 minutes. So probably there was something wrong with that file.

Unfortunately, without reloading my HD back to what it was (using an Acronis backup) before I first ran jkDrfrag(thanks Troy) I wouldn’t be able to compare performance of the other defraggers suggested including Auslogics(thanks happyrock), Contig(thanks decper94), Defraggler(thanks noknojon), PerfectDisk(thanks happyrock) or any of those in the paid ten defragger post (thanks Bill R TechSpec).

Just so you know I had been defragging my HD with the Windows Disk Defragmenter about once a month for years until it started running only a few minutes to defrag my :C volume leaving lot’s of red fragments. Each time I tried after that it would run for only 30 seconds still leaving lots of red fragments. At that point I came on this forum and ran jkDefrag for 11 hours to defrag the :C volume (38GBytes used and 17GBytes free.

Thanks again for you help. My computer seems to defragged and running faster.
Mac2011

[happyrock]

thanks for letting us know...
and, as of now, you are our resident defrag expert...

[Troy]

Yep, before you know it, we'll be asking your opinion on which defrag to run in a given scenario.