DEFRAGGLER - WIERD ??????

..have tried this analysis activity 10 times


................. 30 minutes following a multi-hour TOTAL DEFRAG SESSION with reported 5 fragments left 


......I analyze AGAIN... & despite NO PC activity.. it NOW says 500 fragments !!!!


.......then 10 hours later with no activity, analyze again ... it says 15000 fragments !!!!


AND during ALL of this... WINDOWS control panel says "0" fragments 


WHAT THE ????????????      

Firstly it depends on what you mean when you say 'defragment' or 'fragments'.

Secondly even when you are not using the computer Windows is still doing things, and updating/writing/moving files, in the background.

In fact some of Windows 'housekeeping' only happens when the computer is idle, ie. switched on but you are not using the computer.

Defragmenters can be programmed to ignore files that have 'less than ## fragments', or files below a certain size, or fragments below a certain size.

Sometimes the user can set these limits in the Options/settings.


So it's not unusual for different defragmenters to report different things.

And as said above, it depends on just what you (or the defragmenter) mean by defragmenting.

There are two things that are commonly called 'defragmenting', but they are very different and one takes a lot more resources than the other.

'Defragmentation' proper means getting you files into one piece each, so they can be read slightly faster.

‘Consolidation’ is also commonly called defragmenting and means getting your files into the smallest number of possible clusters on the disc, which may (will) actually fragment the files themselves. That’s the one that takes more resources, it’s not realy needed on todays larger discs, and indeed it will take much longer on todays larger discs.

(When most people talk about defragmenting they are actually <em>thinking</em> about consolidation, that's simply because the software has been (wrongly) calling it that for years, but user needs have changed over time as discs got bigger so have lots of free space available).

By default Defraggler does a combination of both consolidation and defragmentation, but you can also specify one or the other.

To do a 'file only' defragment in Defraggler which will use less resources and complete quicker:

Open defraggler and analyse the drive.


Click on 'View Files' or click on the 'Files' tab.


Select the tickbox at the top of the list to select everything found.


Click on 'Defrag Checked'.

That will just defragment the files without trying to consolidate the whole drive.

So it will be quicker and use less resources.

Like any tool that can be used in multiple ways what you get out of Defraggler depends on knowing how to use it in the best way for you.

...the question is simple... WHY go through this time consuming exercise

if it renders the PC with astonishing more defragmented files ONLY A FEW HOURS LATER..

..and all the time WINDOWS 10 is saying "0%" defragmented files DURING THE ENTIRE TIME...

OF WHAT USE IS THIS SOFTWARE ?????????????????????????????

9 hours ago, TerryC said:
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		...the question is simple... WHY go through this time consuming exercise
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Honest opinion? - You don't have to. Save your time and stop doing what isn't really needed.

Personally I'd say that 99.99% of the defragmenting being done around the world is unnecessary.

Hard Drive capacity and technology has moved on, processor technology has moved on. - But most peoples thinking hasn't caught up yet.

Many articles written about defragmenting haven't caught up yet.

Or don't want to because  <em>"It's not needed most of the time"</em> doesn't make for a long article. (Or sell defragmenting apps).

Unless your disc is in a real mess then you won't notice any performance difference between before and after running a defragmenter app.

Consolidation/defragmentation of a spinning magnetic disc could be important 10, 20, 30+ years ago - drives were smaller and slower, RAM was smaller, computer processors were slower.

It's not so important nowadays.

Todays larger drives have plenty of space so don't often need consolidating. (only if they have been used a lot with a lot of deletes and re-writes over time).

For the average user it isn't a problem.

Files being fragmented means they will load into memory (RAM) a tiny bit more slowly, we are talking about milliseconds difference with todays faster processors which means you will hardly notice the difference if you notice at all,

However, some people still like to see a 'tidy' drive when they run a defragmenter.

But that's a self fullfilling prophecy - <em> If they didn't run a defragmenter then they wouldn't know it was 'untidy' anyway</em>*, and wouldn't notice any difference.


So they are looking for a problem that isn't realy a problem.

*You may have noticed that the built in Windows one doesn't show you a drive map anymore. That's so you can't see if the disc is 'untidy' or not, because it doesn't matter.

But if people stopped making/selling defragmenters, and especially if Windows didn't include one, then there would be moans and complaints.

As long as people expect to see one in Windows then it will still be there.

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		all the time WINDOWS 10 is saying "0%" defragmented files
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All defragmenters will report different things.

In this case Windows will be ignoring files below a certain size, or with less than a certain number of fragments.


Again, because it doesn't really matter.


(I'm guessing that over time the Windows defragmenter/optimiser will show less and less until it becomes simply another background maintenance task that doesn't have a user interface, removing the drive map and not showing all fragmented files look like just the first stages of that process).

....everyone reading this webpage of comments is probably the same sort of person I AM

..... WE ENJOY "engaging in stuff that will allegedly improve our equipment"....

....time consuming work like defragging that isn't necessary or really needed - in the first place

.......................as you pointed out in your response above !

............. a worthless effort with software like DEFRAGGLER...

15 hours ago, TerryC said:
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		a <strong>worthless effort with software like DEFRAGGLER.</strong>..
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It also matters what defrag software is used I'm not listing others here since this forum is for Piriform's software. Some seemingly take forever and seemingly don't "give up" trying to "perfectly" consolidate a disk - that's where the waste of time aspect of such tools comes into play. Whilst other defrag software do seem to actually give up when it isn't beneficial. An example: I've seen on my system one defrag software (not Defraggler) that will chug along moving a 262GB single file backup image just to literally move it a mere one or two blocks on the defrag map trying to consolidate it as tight as possible, whereas another defrag software (not Defraggler) doesn't waste the time doing that so it "gives up".

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Maybe if it's on your main system, such a task can tie up the system for too long when you wish to do something else, which is likely usually the case if something is going to take hours.

What I've been doing for the last four years is to use a still operational older computer with a "modern enough" OS to run "modern enough" defrag software which is used for such time consuming tasks. It's also good for it having a completely different known/trusted antivirus software installed (instead of solely trusting what's installed on the main system from Microsoft) for virus scanning things like backup hard disks, etc., i.e.; a second opinion when virus scanning.