Slow defragmentation for small files

Defraggler
1

Hello all!

I've used Defraggler for a while now as my main defrag solution. I have had and still have a question about defragmenatation of small files. When I want to defrag my hard drive, defraggler starts with the smaller files first (around 50kb) that are fragmented in 2 or 3 fragments.

But It only defrags one or two files per second, and there are times when Defraggler doesn't defrag at all. I supposed that defraggler was acting like that to save hard drive usage too. I would like to know if there are any solutions for this, because the defrag process could be much faster without this problem.

Thank you for futures answers !!

2

Are you referring to a common regular defrag or the quick one? This is important. If it's the regular defrag then I suppose Defraggler is looking for best file placement (filling gaps), thus consuming more cpu time.

3

I'm referring to both regular and quick defrag. Defraggler stops CPU and hard drive usage until the next second, and then defrag 2 new small files, and then stops, then defrag, etc etc...

I'll try to make a CPU & HDD usage graphic for the defraggler processus, and you'll see that defraggler stops "working" after defraging 2 small files for a second.

I would like to add 2 things: the first one is that I'm french and I'm pretty sure I'll make mistakes in y posts ;) Don't blame me, I'm always getting better in English.

The second one is that Defraggler defrag these 2 or 3 filoes very fast, and disk and CPU usage stops.

I don't know why, but sometimes (very rarely), it "chain-defrag" for a couple of seconds, defraging a hundered of files, and then continuing defraging 2 files in one single second, etc...

PS : I know that defraging is defragmenting ;)

4

Nah, your English is fine. I am not a English native speaker either.

Back on topic: for me Quick Defrag is usually quick but on the other hand I suffer from OCD (Obsessive compulsive defragging) and defrag a lot... XD

5

Wow since the last update, it defrag so slowly that it would take days to defrag the half of my hard drive xD

No seriously, the last update didn't increased the defrag speed... But anyway, I suppose it's normal for defraggler to work like this, but I would like from them to add a "super-mode" where it defrag at the speed of light, with 100% of HDD usage xD

EDIT : no, for real, after 5 minutes of quick defraging... It only degraged... 10 files oO ?? The heaviest is 52 kb...

6

... and everything is alright with your disk ?

Did you check the SMART-Values ? (Santé)

Try to Benchmark the disk using e.g. HDtune (free Version) ...

7

What operating system are you using? are your hard-disk operating in IDE or SATA (AHCI) mode?

Tried checking for errors (chkdsk) too?

8

I'm equipped with a brand new Western Digital Caviar Black (1 To). The SMART values are correct, no problems with the disk. 42 days of "Power On".

I'm using Windows 7 Premium and I already checked the disk with HD Tune Pro 5.50, it detects one unstable sector that I repaired (previous problem that I already solved).

9

Bump this topic, I'm having the same issue....I even thought it was a defective sector, but it isn't. I did an HDDScan on the entire drive and it didn't return any errors.

I'm running the latest version of Defraggler (2.18). I'm running a full defrag, moving big files to the end of the drive. The big files were moved really fast, but when Defraggler started moving the small files, it got reeeeeally slow (the files themselves were moved really fast, but the program only moved 2-3 files per second, just as it happened to PlaysGames11). Even though I don't enable system restore on this drive, I also tried disabling VSS just to be sure, but it didn't make any difference :-(

The drive is a 3TB Seagate Barracuda 7200 rpm that I use to store my media files and backups, It has a GUID partition table, and a single NTFS partition (since it uses GPT, it has 512 bytes sectors instead of 4kb ones, don't know if this could be an issue). The defrag runs with normal priority, and the CPU usage hovers around 13% all the time, even when there's almost no disk activity, although I have a beefy CPU (Core i7 4790)

Edit: The drive has 733,5GB (26%) free space, so this shouldn't be an issue...

My System Specs:

CPU: Intel Core i7 4790

Motherboard: Gigabyte Z97X-UD5H

GPU: Gigabyte GTX 670 WindForce OC

RAM: G.Skill 16GB (4GBx4) DDR3-1866

PSU: Corsair AX760

OS:Windows 7 Ultimate x64

Storage:

Samsung SSD 840 Pro 256GB (System Drive)

2 x Seagate Barracuda 3TB drives (no RAID)

One DVD drive and one Blu-Ray drive, both from LG

Everything with the latest official drivers and firmwares, no overclocks, and Windows is fully updated too. The drives are running in AHCI mode, and I’ve installed Intel Rapid Storage v13.0.3.1001.

I really like Defraggler, of all the free defragmentation programs that I tested, it's the most feature rich, but this slowness is starting to turn me away from it :-(

English is not my native language either, so I hope I was clear enough, and gave relevant information. I also really hope you guys can solve this :-)

Thank you so much for your patience, my best regards,

Lucas

10

512KB bytes per sector could be an issue as far as speed is concerned, but I am not sure. 3GB and 512KB clusters? there must be a gazillion of allocation units.

11

I thought that too, but I have 2 identical drives, and the other one also has a GPT, but I made two partitons, one with 1,81TB (for games) and the other with 931 MB (for temp stuff), and when I defrag them, even though they also have 512 bytes sectors, they defrag at a much faster speed.

I thought it could be because the 3TB (2.72TB actually) partition is the only one that I defrag using the option to move big files to the end of the drive, so I disabled this option and the drive still defragments very slowly. When I deleted some big files, I tried defraging the drive again, and it defraged the big files in a sec, and got stuck when defraging the small ones... Even cancelling the defrag operation takes longer than the other drive with 2 smaller partitions, as if the program were a little "lost"....