Sharing my defrag issues

[nycste]

Windows XP SP3

Hi all, ive been trying to defrag my 1terybyte drive for days now, it was basically full besides like 60gb of free space

i used defraggler several times, both as normal runs, and as just single defragment runs.. all runs werent very successfull and only freeup some minor space and defrag some files...

my problem is most of these files that are fragmented are big files all 700+mb and a few 1-8gb ones... clearly those takeup more space then simple normal files. so after several runs i even ran jkdefrag once or twice and nothing showed promiss still holding 100-150gb of defragmented files i didnt know what to do.

1. i then removed about 150gb worth of data onto another drive hoping to freeup a lot of space. then ran defraggler several more times, no improvements. i used all options, defrag freespace (no fragmentation), i did normal runs where it defrags and places files in order, and i also tried single file defragmentation all of which did little to nothing in the long run and this is with 300gb free space 632gb used space on a terabyte drive i was getting annoyed

2. i then ran jkdefrag again, at first i thought it defraged a lot of my files on default run, but maybe i was wrong. jkdefrag with this extra 300gb space finally worked, and was able to make large open sections on my drive due to its whatever fragmentation method. i was finally happy.

i have a screenshot of what it looks like at this point now, and what it originally looked like. the main problem originally was that i guess there were few sections that were big enough to hold the large files but there should of been plently of spaces to move files to make room to defragment others id imagine but i suppose i was wrong. and even with 300gb of free space defraggler which i have been using for a while let me down.

anywho this is what it looks like right now, i selected almost all the defraged files which are highlighted in red in this picture for individual defragmentation, and i will post the outcome which will be ready in a few mins. i am hoping that all files were defragmented and if not... i do not understand why maybe someone can explain to me why not...

as long as there is space, i dont understand why something would remain defragmented?

i am here just sharing my experience, i am still uncertain which program i like better btw defraggler, jkdefrag, and i used to use a program i thought i really liked but it isnt free and therefor stopped using it called

i also used diskeeper and the other big one umm another hug commerical one in the past, but have since used them due to size, cost, and other things, i dont like programs installing running processes

so all im looking for are some reasons why i cannot fully defragment my drive? its all data there shouldnt be any or many system files at all. and im just sharing my experience with a big drive full of all sized files

thankyou, my first post

-nycste

[The_Don]

Windows XP SP3

Hi all, ive been trying to defrag my 1terybyte drive for days now, it was basically full besides like 60gb of free space

i used defraggler several times, both as normal runs, and as just single defragment runs.. all runs werent very successfull and only freeup some minor space and defrag some files...

my problem is most of these files that are fragmented are big files all 700+mb and a few 1-8gb ones... clearly those takeup more space then simple normal files. so after several runs i even ran jkdefrag once or twice and nothing showed promiss still holding 100-150gb of defragmented files i didnt know what to do.

1. i then removed about 150gb worth of data onto another drive hoping to freeup a lot of space. then ran defraggler several more times, no improvements. i used all options, defrag freespace (no fragmentation), i did normal runs where it defrags and places files in order, and i also tried single file defragmentation all of which did little to nothing in the long run and this is with 300gb free space 632gb used space on a terabyte drive i was getting annoyed

2. i then ran jkdefrag again, at first i thought it defraged a lot of my files on default run, but maybe i was wrong. jkdefrag with this extra 300gb space finally worked, and was able to make large open sections on my drive due to its whatever fragmentation method. i was finally happy.

i have a screenshot of what it looks like at this point now, and what it originally looked like. the main problem originally was that i guess there were few sections that were big enough to hold the large files but there should of been plently of spaces to move files to make room to defragment others id imagine but i suppose i was wrong. and even with 300gb of free space defraggler which i have been using for a while let me down.

anywho this is what it looks like right now, i selected almost all the defraged files which are highlighted in red in this picture for individual defragmentation, and i will post the outcome which will be ready in a few mins. i am hoping that all files were defragmented and if not... i do not understand why maybe someone can explain to me why not...

as long as there is space, i dont understand why something would remain defragmented?

i am here just sharing my experience, i am still uncertain which program i like better btw defraggler, jkdefrag, and i used to use a program i thought i really liked but it isnt free and therefor stopped using it called

i also used diskeeper and the other big one umm another hug commerical one in the past, but have since used them due to size, cost, and other things, i dont like programs installing running processes

so all im looking for are some reasons why i cannot fully defragment my drive? its all data there shouldnt be any or many system files at all. and im just sharing my experience with a big drive full of all sized files

thankyou, my first post

-nycste

Hi,

If it's pagefiles or programs in use they can't be defragged. For pagefiles you have to use another program called PageDefrag from sysinternals which you can download from here http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinte...s/bb897426.aspx

If the files are in use you may be able to defrag after rebooting.

So if I were you I would use Defraggler to analyze your drive first and than you can click with mouse on the red blocks that indicate fragmented to learn if in fact it is pagefiles and programs in use that need defragment.

[galileo]

Keep in mind that defragging is much like solving a puzzle - in order to collect all fragments of a file and order them into one contiguous string there must be at least as much contiguous free space as what the defragmented file requires. So, many times you will have to spend as much time creating freespace as you do defragging. I have frequently run across the same issues as you have...when there are numerous large files. Mine tend to be with multiple hard disk (or partition) image files which are usually in the 2GB to 35GB (yes ...that is 35GB) sizes.

I suggest the following method of attack (with Defraggler):

• 1 - Defrag the Freespace allowing fragmentation - this is to prepare the maximum amount of contiguous freespace as you can

  2 - Analyze the drive and from the File list tab select the bulk of the small files (<100MB) and defrag those files

  3 - Analyze again to see if you have used up the contiguous freespace - If “yes” then Defrag Freespace but, do not allow fragmentation

  4 - Analyze again and from the File list tab, start selecting a few of the larger files and defrag them - don’t select too many files at any one time

  5 - Repeat steps 3 and 4 and gradually work through remaining files on the File list tab - selecting larger and larger files on each cycle

This process proceeds in a stepwise fashion to not only defrag the files but to keep recreating as much contiguous free space as you can so that the larger files will have the room (i.e. freespace) to be "assembled" into contiguous files by Defraggler. Keep in mind that as you cycle through larger and larger files, you will reach a point where you will only want (or be able) to select and defragment one file per cycle...otherwise you will not have adequate contiguous freespace and will just be wasting time waiting for an unsuccessful defrag cycle to complete. Theoretically, the defragger itself should be performing something similar to this cycling...but...the algorithm that is coded into the defragger may not be quite sophisticated enough to deal with "really" large files.

This is a time consuming process....but it does work...even on 35GB files!

Good Luck......

gallileo

[nycste]

-don

-i dont think that is my problem, its a data drive as i mentioned above, and has no pagefile that i know of, and most red dots only have a few items in them, none of which are system or only a few have system files

as you can clearly see i have tons of free space, but the program lacks the ability to move the files to the free space to defragement them and i dont understand why not.... thats all thanks though

-galileo

-well that is indeed the longest possible method, and something i might try someday, but that involves way too much user work, when a program should be able to do that easily otherwise whats the point of the program

i think the program fails when it comes to large files? simply bec they take up learger room and have a harder time stacking them i suppose, but as you can see my picture clearly shows tons of free space, i mean 1/3 the drive is free, why then o why is there any fragmented file esp after over 5 complete runs.... just confusing

im running jkdefrag again, starting this run with 114 fragmented files taking up 84gb according to defraggler, soo well see how successfull this run is

and in the bottom line, i dont want to ever have to move a 700mb movie file, there is no reason to ever have to move it, its not like a game data file that would speed up play and stuff

jkdefag sorts things in like 3 sections which is cool for the main drive, but i dont like the idea of it completly for data drives full of 1mb-10gb files, but maybe your method makes most since, i just want all my data jampacked in order of some sort, and when new files get thrown in should just be placed in the section that it would fit, but i dont think ntfs does that, instead it throws a 100mb file into a 20mb space then an 80mb remainer space rather then look for the first 100mb space section right? and thats the problem with ntfs? or idk, all i know is i also use linux and supposedily sorts out files well and stuff i dont understand fully why yet

[nycste]

well since no one responded i did a few things

tried defragging in umm safe mode, but it was soo goshdarn slow at least 100x too slow and moving big files is just painfull

i tried defraggler several more times and jkdefrag all to which little success of removing fragments

i then did the unthinkable lol, i used the built in windows defragger, and all files but 1 8gb file successully has been defragmented which i am finally happy with

next step i will try is compressing all files to front of hdd so i can move back my older data i removed to improve defraging, and hopefully not create more fragments not that it matters too much on unused data drives much anyway i just wanted to learn how to defrag, and how soo many products failed to defrag a file with tons of free space bottom line

just sharing my findings, i still will use defraggler and others as i continue my testing of finding the best free/opensource programs available