I've used Defraggler on a couple different computers, but I've come across one where it seems to be working very strangely..... After running Defraggler, the drive map looks just as bad or worse (color coded as same or even MORE fragmented), report shows no improvement in fragmented files and no reduction in Gb used up by them, and free space goes down by a few Gb EACH time Defraggler runs.
I've noticed no performance reduction, and other tools (Windows defrag, check disk, etc) report no problems, supposedly the drive is healthy and performing well.
Machine is a Panasonic CF-74 2.0 Ghz Core 2 Duo, 4mb RAM, running Windows Vista Business 32-bit. Using NTFS but unknown hard drive manufacturer.
Hello nemesys4565 - Not very long ago I bought a refurbished Lenovo T400 laptop that had Windows Vista Business 32 bit installed. Vista lasted only a few hours, just long enough for me to visit Lenovo's support website, and then download and flash the most current BIOS version and install some Intel firmware. Then I installed Linux Mint on that machine. One thing I noticed during that brief time was the almost constant disk activity with Vista Business installed. After I installed Linux Mint, I immediately noticed that there was zero disk activity after the first system boot. I later found out that by default, during periods of inactivity, Vista will automatically start defragmenting the hard disk. There is probably a way to disable this feature, I can't describe how to do it because I found this out after the fact. Doing a Google search "constant disk activity Windows Vista" will probably lead you to the answer. It sounds like Defraggler and Vista are having a turf war over which one gets to defragment your hard drive.
BTW, how do you like the CF-74 Toughbook? My brother has the same machine, it arrived with Windows XP 32 bit installed. We performed three modifications right after he got it. The memory was upgraded from 512MB to 4GB, the 60GB hard drive was replaced with a 240GB Crucial M500 SSD, and I installed Linux Mint 64 bit with the Cinnamon desktop. It's his favorite computer now, he uses it more often than his iMac. Even if you stick with some version of Windows, you should think about installing a 64 bit OS on that machine. Using a 32 bit OS on a 64 bit system is not using it to it's full potential.