Hi
Is it normal for defraggler to take a long time on first use
Yes, especially with todays large drives.
As Nergal said.
It also depends on what you you mean by '"a long time". (It could take hours on a highly fragmented multi-terabyte disc).
Main factors:
How big is the drive you are defragging. (Bigger drives take longer for a full defrag).
How much free space is on the drive. (The less free space the longer a defrag will take).
What percentage fragmentation did Defraggler report it had before starting. (The higher the fragmentation the longer it will take).
Other factors that will have an effect:
The amount of ram you have free.
Your disc access speed.
Your CPU speed.
If you are doing anything else, or the computer is running something in the background, at the same time as defragging.
PS. Once you have done the first full disc defrag then in future it's much faster to do a 'File Defrag'.
Analyze>View Files>select all files found (by ticking the box in the top left corner)>Defrag Checked
Whether to do full disc or file defrag depends on why you are defragging. The different methods do different things.
You don't realy need a full disc defrag unless you are running short of disc space.
A file defrag gets your files into one piece so that they load (slightly) faster.
It's well known enough by now for years that Defraggler is a bit slow, however something else to also consider is if the hard disk uses SMR technology (which has gotten hard disk manufacturers into legal trouble). I'd imagine an SMR hard disk could cause a full defrag/full optimization to take a long time.
- Switch off "System Restore". This will reduce the time needed for a full defrag of your HD.