norel

I've had this one item in my Startup list for a long time now and it won't delete. It can be enabled and disabled but it's blank under "Key" "Program" and "File" so I'm not sure what it is. I've had it disabled for a long time and my system works just fine so I don't think it's anything crucial. I'd like to be able to see what it is and delete it if possible. Anyone happen to know what this weirdness is about? Thanks.

At this point all Defraggler can do is move large files to the end. It consolidates the rest at the beginning but not in any particular order.

Defraggers report % of fragmentation differently. I'm not sure how Windows works but it seems to report that no defrag is necessary regardless so I'm not sure how reliable it is. Defraggler includes files like hyberfil.sys, pagefile.sys and System Volume Information even though it can't defrag them so its % is always higher.

To me Defraggler's analysis results are as good as worthless. If the drive is all blue blocks and contiguous that's about the best you can hope for. It does seem to me that sometimes it can take Defraggler a few passes to get everything straightened out. But when you use it on a regular basis it usually does it all in one.

The first time usually does take longer but here are some suggestions that might speed things up- 1. Turn off System Restore. If you're not sure how just Google it and you'll find all you need to know for your operating system. This will delete all the old restore points. You can then turn it back on and create a new restore point. You shoul notice that some space has been freed up on the drive. 2. Make sure Defraggler isn't set to move any large files to the end of the drive as this can slow things down. Look in Settings>Options>Defrag. With all the free space you have there shouldn't really be any need to move anything to the end of the drive. 3. Run Defraggler is Safe Mode. Restart your computer and press F8 while it's starting up. Some people say that Safe Mode is actually slower but I've had good results with Defraggler in Safe Mode. Not sure why that is; it seems to be able to move stuff easier.

I have the same problem with icons in Vista. Here's what I have to do when it happens. Right click the icon>Properties>Change Icon>Click the icon, there's probably just one>OK>Apply. Repeat until the icon changes. I have to do this a minimum of three times but the third times the charm. I don't know what the freakin' problem is but this works for me, it might work for Windows 7.

RAID could be the problem. I know some people have had issues with it. I think Defraggler is supposed to be able to handle RAID but it might have limitations. It's a good defragger but after all it's free so that has to be taken into consideration.

How much free space do you have? I think 20% is recommended. If you're defragging a large volume with large files it's going to take forever. Defraggler is good about consolidating free space, but if you have a lot of large files they all have to be moved, at least the first time you run it. If the volume is almost full, Defraggler won't do you much good anyway. The files will be defragged but not in any particular order. The drive head will still have to move all over the disk to find stuff.

Hmm...it's odd that it works on every drive but C. You might post the error report that was generated with debug mode in the Defraggler Bug Reporting area. It's the first one on the first page.

You might try running in Debug Mode. I've never used it so I don't know how well it works but the link gives instructions about how to run it.

I don't think Smart Defrag counts the C:\System Volume Information as fragmented, it reports them as unmovable. You might check with Defraggler and see if the files it's reporting as fragmented are C:\System Volume Information.

I think Defraggler is pretty good about compacting files and putting them all at the front end of the drive. This is a big improvement over the built-in Windows defragger but not as flexible as some that allow customized placement of files. Custom placement isn't as critical if your drive is fairly empty. If it's fairly empty all your files wind up on the fast tracks regardless of their order. Maybe if they were arranged in a particular order you would get an increase of a millisecond or two but not enough to concern most people. So Defraggler, as it is, seems like a good choice for those who don't have a lot of data but if the drive is very full I'm not sure how much good it does. "Optimization" is a good idea but from my experience those free defraggers that offer it don't work very well anyway.

It's not useless to delete C:\System Volume Information if you want to free up disk space. These files replicate like crazy and deleting them and starting fresh is the best way I know to keep them under control.

System Volume Information can't be defragged in Vista or Windows 7. There aren't any defraggers that I know of that can do it whether at boot or any other way. You can keep it under control by temporarily disabling System Restore (C:\System Volume Information are System Restore files). This will delete all the old restore points. Then enable System Restore again and create a new restore point. You may have to do this periodically.

Richard, if I understand what you're saying, under this scenario Defraggler just looks for contiguous space and fills it up, in essence compacting but not really sorting anything. Correct?

Does anyone know with certainty how Defraggler organizes files. I've watched and tried to figure out if there's any rhyme or reason to it but from what I can tell it mainly just compacts in the order that it finds them. Anyone know anything conclusive on this?

That's what I'd do. Actually, I would disable System Restore which will delete every restore point, then create a new restore point.

If you want my opinion it looks very bad. When people want to improve performance the first things they generally think of are a faster processor or more memory when all that's really needed is a good clearing out of the hard drive. Even if you were successful in defragging you would still have a tremendous amount of data in the slow areas of the drive. If you want to keep all your data what you might really need is a commercial defragger that will allow you to place the data where you want it for optimum performance. Defragging with Defraggler might help a little but it will probably take forever and the results might not be that spectacular.

There are a lot of websites with instruction for defragging from the command prompt. Here's a pretty good one. You have to use an elevated command prompt, which put simply is running it as an administrator; the site tells you how to do that.

The biggest advantage of Defraggler over Windows Vista is you can actually see what's going on. Vista has a lot of defrag issues that aren't there in XP but you'll have those no matter what defragger you use; at least with Defraggler you can see the action. The Vista defragger is mainly designed to defrag behind the scenes. A lot of people like that, but I don't think it really defrags very well unless you use the command prompt. I've tried all the free defraggers and a few of the commercial ones and for a free defragger you just can't beat Defraggler. Some of the paid defraggers are more powerful but they're too complicated for my liking. Defraggler doesn't have "optimize" but in my experience it optimizes as good or better as any of the others all by itself. When I run it my system is snappier, and after all the proof of the pudding is in the eating.

It's safe to disable the built-in defragger. I would only run one or the other; if you run them both they'll actually work against each other.

To defrag pagfile.sys you have to use a program that will defrag at startup before everything loads, which Defraggler can't do at this point. I wouldn't delete it unless you're totally desperate for hard drive space. The simplest thing to do is set it to a fixed size and forget it. Instructions on how to do that are here.

I've experienced this too on Windows XP and there have been discussions here about it. At first I didn't think too much about it but have since started to believe it's not normal. What I did to fix mine was to defrag and move every file to the end of the drive, reboot and then defrag again normally moving everything back. It worked for me and the Reserved for MFT started displaying normally. I don't know if it'll work every time though.

It depends on what they are. If you could post the names of the files, someone might know how to deal with them. If you Google the file names and find out what they are, that also might help you figure out what can be done, if anything.

The best way I know of to deal with pagfile.sys is set it to a fixed size and be done with it. I can explain how you do it in Vista since that's what I have. There are instruction out there on the Web for other operating systems that aren't hard to find. Open "Control Panel", Classic View. Double click "System". Select "Advanced system settings". Click the Performance "Settings" button. Select the "Advanced" tab. Click the Virtual Memory "Change" button. Write down the "Currently allocated" number. Select "No paging file" and restart. Then go back to the same panel and setup a paging file with "Custom size" where both the Initial Size and the Maximum Size are the number you wrote down previously. Restart again. The page file will now be a single unfragmented file that will never need defragged. As for hiberfil.sys, I would simply delete it unless you absolutely have to have Hibernation for some reason. Hibernation's a bit overrated, especially for desktop computers. The idea somewhat makes sense for a laptop as an energy saver; but as I see it, if you need to Hibernate you might as well just shut down. I use Sleep on my laptop quite a bit, but never Hibernation; and for a desktop it really makes no sense at all. In Vista: Start>All Programs>Accessories>Right click "Command Prompt">"Run as Administrator". If User Account Control (UAC) asks you for permission, permit the Command Prompt to run. Enter "powercfg -h off" (without the quotes). Restart. The "hiberfil.sys" file will be automatically deleted. You can turn it back on by entering "powercfg -h on," but I think there are additional steps for recreating hiberfil.sys. I'm not sure what they are since I've never needed to turn it back on but the information should be available.