Large (8Gb) file not being de-fragmented

Hi, I have a large movie file transferred from my Sony DAT camcorder, which is a .dvr-ms file and is 8.8GB. Every time I run defraggler it ignores this file and doesn't fragment it. Is this a size restriction or file type restriction that I'm not aware of?

i dont know... do you have any personal options enabled in defraggler?

if you want, you can this file defrag with "action" --> "defrag file" ...

Don't believe I've got any non-default options enabled. Have tried the individual file defrag on it and it comes back with a box saying "Defrag Aborted. No files were defragmented. This operation cannot be done.", which suggests for some reason there is a file it cannot defrag. I even copied the file and deleted the old one and it still has exactly the same issue. Any ideas?

Could be various things

* The size of it if that's a limitation which I don't know. Although some defraggers won't bother with single big files since it wouldn't be of any performance benefit to bother defragging them.

* The freespace available on the hard disk - if there isn't enough available it wouldn't be defragged. This can also be coupled with the MFT zone ("space allocated for the MFT" which defrag tools should respect).

Sometimes it's necessary to run a different defrag tool such as the one included in Windows, etc., (since some ignore things that another won't).

how many fragments are we talking about with the 8.8GiB file?

@Andavari is right, defraging that file won't have any effect on your system speed, and will only benefit you in the speed in which that file is opened and only then if it is moderately fragmented.

if you can copy the file, there should be at least enough free space to defrag it but that's dependent on how DF does its thing.

but the copy approach would be one way to 'defrag' that file.

run DF on the drive first to get the files as contiguous as possible then copy that file somewhere else, on the assumption Windows will copy it in one contiguous group or at least in less groups than it is currently. then delete the original. (don't move the file as the file physically won't get moved, just its address in the file tables will get updated)

perhaps Defraggler "thinks" it is something similar like a restore point or the hypernation file?

has anyone found anything out?

Is there a 8+ GB contiguous free space available at all ?

Is there a 8+ GB contiguous free space available at all ?

don't think DF needs one.

I've seen it 'defrag' a large file with the end result of the file just having less fragments, it seems to sometimes simply move what it can where it can.

@mta: but then DF won't defragment the enitre file, then it will only partially defragment the file.

Solution: Use DF's option "Free Space Defragment". It will move files towards the beginning of the drive and that could create a contiguous 8+ free disk space.