menomena9

Thanks Alan_B. Actually, I already found what you have said to be true. So, last night, I developed a different strategy that appears to be working. I am systematically moving all of my files that are already on my drive to the end of the drive. By doing a search of each folder, I can check, designating a move to the end of the drive, all of the contents of the folder. Sometimes I need to separately move a file in the folder with a different name. It is usually a very small file that is moved to the block nearest the end of drive that still has free space. This way, I am compacting all of my compressed files (the drive is compressed) using all available free space, maximizing the data that can be contained on the external drive. All files, so moved, are defragmented and the free spaces they are moved to seem to be defragmented, too. When I have moved all of the files presently on the drive to the end, I will want new files I am moving to the drive to be compactly copied to the beginning of the drive. Here is my question: Should I defragment the free space (not allowing fragmentation option) before adding files to the beginning of the drive that has been cleared of all files by moving them to the end? In other words, after I have moved all existing files to the end, will the free space left behind, which was previously 'free space defragmented' now be fragmented again and in need of another defragmentation? Or will Defraggler automatically defragment the free space as the new files are added to the beginning of the drive? Even more important for me to know is, if I do defragment the free space, will Defraggler disturb, in any way, the files I have compactly moved to the end of the drive? Will it move any of those files away from the end of the drive or cause them to be fragmented or otherwise moved about?

Thanks again for the additional welcome suggestions. I am defragging a 3 TB external drive that is packed with media files. When I compacted files, and then folders, I did save significant space but the Microsoft compacting engine threw fragments of all my files all over the disc. So I decided to move about 1/3 of them and then defrag first the files and then the free space (not allowing fragmentation) so that when I compact the drive itself and then move the folders, one at a time, back to the drive, they will be both compacted and continuous (not fragmented). This will recover significant real estate if, as hoped, it will be successful. Partial tests of this strategy have worked. You have been a great help.

I was concerned about stopping in the middle because in a reply to a Google search hit about 'less space after defrag' asked the questioner if they stopped in the middle of a defrag and started again. You are telling me that this would not cause that. Thanks kroozer for the very fast reply. I did stop and start again a defrag of my very large drive yesterday. The operation takes over 8 hours to complete and my restart seemed to cause Defraggler to start over again, slowly re-processing the files it already defragged. I have not been able to find another person having this problem. Have you heard of it? Do you think it is a bug in the program or in my OS that is causing this?

I switched to a different user account (didn't log off) in Win7 while Defraggler was running. When I went back to the account where Defraggler is running, the application window was closed. When I try to repopen it, either from the Task Bar icon or the Start Menu icon, I get the message: "Defraggler is already running" in a dialog titled, "Piriform Defraggler." There is no way to reopen the Defraggler window. I even checked the notification area, hoping that Defraggler was minimized there - no such luck, either in the shown or the hidden icon area! When I go into task manager, Defraggler is not listed among the running Applications but it does appear, as defraggler64.exe in the Processes tab list, and shows a CPU usage that fluctuates between 25 and 24. Does anyone know how and why this is happening? This is not a one-time partial system crash. This has happened to me several times over the past few days. Is there any way that I can reopen the Application window to see how the defrag is progressing without having to close down the process and then reopen it, which I don't want to do since stopping and restarting the defrag process might adversely affect it? Thanks.